30 



COFFEE. 



Estimate made up for the year 1873 from the offtcial returns of 

 articles imported and retained for consumption in the various coun- 

 tries ; chiefly from the " Statistical Abstract for Foreign Countries," 

 second number : — 





Total Imports of 

 001^66 tcilcGii for 

 Consumption. 



Average per 

 Head. 





lbs. 



lb.s. 





98,635,000 



2-73 



Belgium 



49,771,000 



13-48 





18,779,500 



703 



Russia, Euroi^eau . . 



14,740,920 



0-19 





26,555,213 



611 





17,636,080 



9-80 





26,035,652 



13-89 





72,395,800 



21-00 





178,715,936 







76,876,576 



2'-'l3 





2,131,367 



142 



Italy ,. 



28,511,560 



1-00 



United Kingdom 



82,330,928 



1-00 





293,293,833 



7-61 



The following table, recently published in the French ' Annales 

 du Commerce Exterieur,' gives the assumed general consumption of 

 coffee in 1874, in tons : 



United States .. 124,500 



Germany 95,000 



Holland and Belgium 43,000 



France 44,000 



Austria and Hungary 25,000 



Portugal, Spain. Italy, and Greece 25,000 



United Kingdom 18,000 



Sweden, l«;orway, and Denmark 20,000 



Switzerland 9,000 



Russia 7,500 



Canada, Cape Colonj^, and Australia 9,000 



Total 420,000 



This estimate takes no account of the consumption in the producing 

 countries, nor for Turkey and the African States. 



Varieties of the Plant. — Botanists have enumerated about sixty 

 species of the genus Coffea, spread over various countries in the 

 eastern and western hemispheres. Most of these must be mere 

 varieties resulting from accidents of soil, climate, or cultivation, pro- 

 duced subsequently to the naturalising of the plant, for we know that 

 all the coffee trees now grown in America and the West Indies are 

 the progeny of one plant introduced in the year 1714, and yet 

 botanists have individualised as separate species the following : 



In Brazil — C. Australis, hiflora, jasminoides, gardenioides, magnoliae- 

 folia, major, meridionalis, minor, nodosa, parquioides, parvifolia, poro- 

 phylla, sessilis, stipulacea, truncata, viburnoides. 



In Guiana — C. Guianensis, panicidata, laurifolia, stipulacea. 



