COFFEA ARABICA. THE ARABIAN COFFEE TREE. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA. Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, STELLATE. THE MADDER TRIBE. 
a Berries. 6 The Seed within the berry. 
The Arabic name of the plant is Gahoueh, and of this word, the Persian Cahwa, the Turkish Cahvey, the 
French Cafe, and our Coffee, are evidently corruptions. The coffee-plant is an evergreen shrub, rising from 
fifteen to twenty feet in height. The trunk is erect, seldom exceeding two or three inches in diameter, and 
covered with a brownish bark. The leaves are opposite, ovate-lanceolate, pointed, entire, wavy, smooth, 
shining; bright green on the upper surface, paler beneath, and placed on short petioles. At each knot of 
the branches are two awl-shaped, opposite, interfoliaceous stipules. The flowers are white, sweet-scented, 
sessile, disposed in clusters of four or five together, in the axillae of the leaves, and soon falling off. The 
calyx is superior, very small, 5 -toothed. The corolla is monopetalous, funnel-shaped, and divided into five 
lanceolate, spreading segments. The filaments are five, inserted into the tube of the corolla, and support- 
ing yellow, linear anthers. The germen is ovate, inferior, bearing a simple style the length of the corolla, 
and two awl-shaped, reflexed stigmas. The berry is globular, about the size of a cherry, umbilicated at the 
summit, two-celled, and contains a somewhat gelatinous pulp. The seeds are hemispherical, convex on one 
side, flat and furrowed longitudinally on the other, of a pale glaucous colour, and involved in a thin, elastic, 
pellucid aril. (Med. Bot.J 
Few vegetable substances have been more generally esteemed for their medicinal and dietetic pro- 
perties than the berries of the coffee-tree. The plant is fully described by Ellis and several other writers, 
and Geertner has given an elaborate description of the fruit. The coffee-tree is generally regarded as a 
native of Arabia, but Bruce says, it derives its name from Caffee, a province of Narea, in Africa, where it 
grows spontaneously in great abundance. The plant does not appear to have been known to the Greeks 
or Romans, nor are there any facts on which we can rely respecting its origin in the East. It has been 
well ascertained, however, that the berries were imported into every part of Europe, and used as a favourite 
beverage, long before it was known of what plant they were the product. Prosper Alpinus had seen the 
coffee-tree, without fructification, in some gardens in Egypt; but the first intelligible botanical account was 
published by Anth. de Jussieu, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, in 1713. We are in- 
formed by Boerhaave, in his “Index to the Leyden Garden,” that it was first introduced into Europe by 
Nicholas Wisten, a burgomaster of Amsterdam, and chairman of the Dutch East India Company, who gave 
directions to the governor of Batavia, to procure seeds from Mocha in Arabia Felix. These being sown in 
the island of Java, several plants were procured, and one was transmitted by Wisten, about the year 1690, 
to the botanic garden at Amsterdam. From the progeny of this plant, not only the principal botanic gar- 
dens in Europe, but also the West India islands, were supplied with this valuable tree. Soon after its in- 
troduction into Holland, it was cultivated by Bishop Compton, at Fulham. 
The coffee-tree is frequently cultivated in our gardens as an ornamental evergreen, and will both flower 
and ripen its fruit. It is propagated by the berries, which must be sown soon after they are gathered, or 
they will not vegetate. Being an intra-tropical plant, it must be kept in the stove, and should be allowed a 
free circulation of air, to prevent the attacks of insects. 
In Arabia, the fruit is dried in the sun upon mats, and the outer coat is separated by means of a large 
stone cylinder. It is again placed in the sun, winnowed, and packed up in bales. In the West India Islands, 
as soon as the fruit is of a, deep red colour, it is reckoned to be ready for being gathered. 4 large linen bag, 
kept open by means of a hoop round its mouth, is suspended to the neck by the negroes, who pull the ber- 
ries with their hands, and, after filling the bag, empty it into a large basket. A single negro can easily 
collect three bushels in a day. As the berries do not ripen together, they are collected at three different 
gatherings. One thousand pounds of good coffee are produced from one hundred bushels of cherries just 
from the tree. The coffee-berries may now be dried in two different ways. The first method is to place 
