X PREFACE 



De Wildemann's work, "Les Cafeiers," which was published in 

 1 901, were entirely systematic studies. These publications are limited 

 to certain geographical areas or are lacking in economic consideration. 



All discoverable bibliographical references have been studied care- 

 fully in connection with the macroscopic and microscopic examination 

 of the species. Available evidence resulting from his research en- 

 abled the author to emend or amplify previous systematic descriptions 

 and the nomenclatorial history of several species. The systematic 

 treatment of the useful species is elaborated by a consideration of the 

 other demands of an economic or applied botanical treatise. Thus 

 the work enters a more original field of research than is characteristic 

 of American methods of presentation. A section is devoted to 

 coffee-adulteration and sophistication which involves a discussion 

 of the past and present botanical sources of adulterants and substi- 

 tutes and methods of detection, based on the microscopic, physical, 

 and chemical examination of the commercial coffees and coffee-like 

 beverages of the world. Such a discussion is inseparably connected 

 with the commercial manipulation and the methods of preparation 

 of coffee. Research in this department of the subject necessitated the 

 determination of the caffeine-content of the seeds of the more common 

 economic species. These caffeine-extractions from raw and roasted 

 coffees, to ascertain any change due to seed-torrefication, required a 

 study of the chemistry involved. The treatment presented here is 

 the only complete compilation of the knowledge at hand. This 

 investigation prompted the author to include a list, illustrations, and 

 maps of the geographical distribution of the other caffeine-producing 

 plants of the world. 



Ethnological considerations necessitated the historical discussion 

 of the development of coffee-houses, an interesting part of ethno- 

 botany which shows the effect of the introduction of coffee on the 

 political and social life of the metropolitan centers of Egypt, Arabia, 

 Asia Minor, Europe, and America. Finally, the derivation of the 

 term "coffee" presented here is a new theory which is based on 

 original philological and botanical research which carried the author 

 backward through the Arabic, Hindu, Sanskrit, and Dravidian lan- 

 guages of Southern India, and has resulted in the correction of an 

 error which has existed since the tenth century. 



Recognition of the source of each illustration, not original with 



