348 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
tains of Abyssinia, of which it is a native, and from which it 
was transported, about the middle of the fifteenth century, to 
the mountains of the happy Arabia. 
The East India coffee plantations are derived from a single 
plant raised in Batavia, from seed introduced from Mocha in 
1690; and those of the West Indies are said to have been pro- 
duced, also, from a single plant, presented, in 1714, by the 
Dutch, to Louis XIV. ‘This was multiplied in the Royal Gar- 
dens, whence three plants were despatched on board a ship des- 
tined for Martinique. Two of them perished in the long and 
dangerous passage, and the third was kept alive only through 
the self-sacrificing generosity of the Captain, Decheux, who 
shared with it his allowance of water. Probably the propaga- 
tion of no single plant has produced, in modern times, so great 
an effect upon the habits of mankind.* 
Ipecac, one of the most universal emetics, 1s the creeping, 
brownish, or grayish root of Cephaélis Ipecacuanha, (D. C., IV, 
535,) of Brazil, where it is known by the name of Poyas. 
Several of the genera, Nauclea and Hymenody'ction, furnish 
woods which vie with box and mahogany in delicacy and beauty; 
of another, Siderodendron, iron wood, the hardest of American 
woods, is the produce. Several others yield valuable fruits, 
and a still greater number are remarkable for their magnificent 
and often odoriferous flowers, and their beautiful foliage. 
The coloring properties of this family are found to reside 
chiefly in the root, the tonic and astringent properties in the 
Lark, the valuable emetic principle in the root, the aromatic 
principle of the coflee, in the horny seeds. It is in correspond- 
ing parts of plants of this family, growing among ourselves, 
that we are to look for similar properties. 
The distinguishing characters of the family are, that the ovary 
is more or less completely united with the four or five-clelt 
calyx, into the tube of which the corolla is inserted; the sta- 
mens are equal in number to the lobes of the corolla, alternate 
with them, and, growing from the throat of the corolla; and 
* The name affords a curious instance of derivation. The Arabic naiueis 
Quahoueh, or Kahouek, the Persian, Cakwa, the Turkish Cahvey, French, Café, 
English, Coffee. 
