PREFACE 



'T^ HE present work is a monographic presentation of the economic 

 -*- species of the genus Coffea L. The treatment of coffee pre- 

 sented here is an endeavor to include the systematic, economic, and 

 cultural discussions which are indispensable to modern economic 

 studies. Part I is a scientific discussion of the botany of coffee. 

 Part II is an economic discussion of coffee including production and 

 consumption data, types, preparation, facts concerning the chemistry, 

 and the past and present adulteration of coffee. In concluding this 

 part, a summary is given of the other caffeine-yielding plants, — 

 their distribution and use. The cultural treatment of coffee is given 

 in the form of two appendices presenting an ethnological and his- 

 torical account of coffee and coffee-houses. The work includes 

 eighty-four illustrations, a chronological chart for the use of coffee 

 as a beverage throughout the countries of the world, and an exten- 

 sive bibliography including economic and cultural references. 



Research pertaining to the economic Rubiales, in the Department 

 of Economic Botany of Harvard University, emphasized the fact 

 that coffee, the best known and one of the most important plants of 

 the group, had never been adequately investigated. Although there 

 is abundant literature in regard to the use of the beverage and the 

 systematic position of the coffee-plant, from the Pre-Linnaean period 

 to the present time, the genus Coffea L. has not been treated mono- 

 graphically on an economic basis. Hiern discussed the African species 

 of coffee in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, series 2, i 

 (1876) 173. K. Schumann published the results of his research on 

 the African Rubiacese in Engler's Botanische Jahrbiicher 25 (1898) 

 233. Lecomte in his book "Le Cafe," which was published in 1899, 

 described numerous species and devoted the major part of the work 

 to a discussion of coffee culture. Valeton's paper entitled ''Die 

 Arten der Gattungen Cojfea L., etc.," which was published in the 

 Bulletin de L'Institut Botanique de Buitenzorg 7 (1901) i; and 



