COFFEE. 
73 
celebrated, and the best deserving our attention. 
This tree is of great service to mankind, since its 
cultivation affords employment to several thousands 
of our fellow-creatures, while its berry yields us 
a pleasant, wholesome, and invigorating beverage. 
Arabian coffee has obtained its name from the coun- 
try where it was first noticed ; for, at present, far 
from being confined to Arabia, it is cultivated in 
several parts of the world, and particularly in the 
West Indies. 
The coffee-tree is an evergreen of quick growth, 
rising to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. It 
has a straight trunk of three or four inches in di- 
ameter, bearing a number of branches opposite to 
each other, furnished with oval entire leaves, some- 
what resembling the common laurel. In the angles 
of these leaves appear little bunches, consisting of 
four or five white flowers, of an agreeable smell, and 
resembling the jasmin in figure. Each flower is sup- 
ported upon a very short foot-stalk, and is composed 
of a monopetalous corolla, whose margin is cut into 
five divisions ; five stamens, and a pistil having two 
stigmas, are included within the cup of the flower ; 
the germen is an oval berry with an umbilicus 
containing two seeds, flat and furrowed on one side, 
convex on the other. It is unnecessary to remark, 
that these seeds, when dried and roasted, form the 
article so well known under the name of coffee. 
Before we proceed to the mode of cultivation of 
this most useful plant, it may not be improper to 
