( 26 ) 
Meffieurs La Roque and Ve JuJJieu have given us fo exad and 
complear a Defcription of this Plant, that they had no Occafion 
to compare it to any other, as a Mean to convey a better Idea of 
it; and after what they have faid there can no more Difficulty 
remain whether it ought to be ranked among the Trees or Shrubs. 
La Roque adds, en pafayit, that when at its full Growth it is not 
unlike an Apple Tree. But what we have principally to remark 
from this Author’s Account, is an Obfervation which lets us into 
the Realon of M. Bernier^ Millake, and clears up the Difficulty 
which Dr. Rohinfon was in about it. ^ If our Travellers, fays 
Monf La Roque, ^ had not made this Journey to Mouah ( the 
^ City where the King of Temen then relided) we Ihould perhaps 
‘ have long remain’d ignorant of one Singularity about tlae 
' Coffee Trees, of which no Body has hitherto taken Notice; 
' and that is, that in Places very much expofed to the South, 
^ or which lie too open, thefe Plants are fet under great Trees, 
* which they fay appear’d like a kind of Poplars, and they ferve 
^ to fliade and defend the others from the exceffive Heat of the 
‘ Sun. The Inhabitants are perfuaded that without this Canopy 
^ the Flowers would foon be burnt up, and no Fruit ever appear; 
^ and our Travellers ftw fome Inffances of this in other Trees 
^ which had not the Advantage of a Shade. They obferv’d this 
‘ in the hrfl: Coffee Trees they met with in their Journey; It was 
in a Plain near the City of Tagus, which is very much expos’d. 
^ The Poplars flood at certain Diflances all over the Plantation, 
‘ and each of them fliaded a good Number of Coffee Trees re- 
^ gularly planted for that Purpofe, much after the Manner that 
^ Apple Trees are in Normandy. In other Places which do not 
‘ lie fo open there are none of thefe Trees to be feen, the Cofiee 
‘ Plants thriving well enough there without a Shade. 
Thus far Monf La Roque. And thefe were undoubtedly the 
great Trees which Bernier had been told of, for which he could 
imagine no other Ufe than that they fupported the Coffee Plants, 
as others do the Con^ol<vuli. 
Profeffor Boerhaa^'e agrees in every thing with Commelinus. It 
was fufficient for the Defign of his Index, publiflfd in 172.0, to 
name and clafs this Plant as he had found it done by any good 
Author before him. 
According to Mr. Jofeph Miller, in his late Botanicum Officinale, 
the Coflee Plant feems to be neither Tree nor Shrub, but fome- 
thing between both; which he expreffes by calling it a Jhruohy 
Tree. He is likewife afraid to make it a Species of Jafmin, but 
fays only, that it is fo according to Commelinus. 
z 
Mr. 
