The Cu/tiuation of Liberian Coffee. 
By H.A. Alford Nicholls, M.D., F.L.S. 
IBERIAN Coffee was introduced into the West 
Indies from the Royal Gardens at Kew in the 
year 1874, when a few plants were sent by 
Sir Joseph HOOKER to the Botanic Gardens at Jamaica 
and Trinidad, and to the late Dr. Imray of Dominica. 
At that time, Dr. IMRAY was endeavouring to re- 
establish the coffee cultivation in the island, but the 
devastations of the ' white-fly' blight — which had ruined 
the coffee estates forty years before — so far neutralised 
his efforts as to cause him well nigh to despair of success. 
It may readily be imagined, therefore, with what eagerness 
he watched the development of the young Liberian 
coffee plants, which, from the first, promised to be' of a 
hardier nature than the Arabian or ' creole' species. 
They grew with wonderful rapidity, and, happily, they 
were not affedled by the blight ; so that, in a few years, 
the new Liberian coffee became thoroughly established in 
the island. Indeed, it would appear that Dominica is 
peculiarly adapted for the growth of this tree, for within 
the last few years many coffee planters in the various 
West Indian colonies, as well as the Botanic Gardens 
of Jamaica, Trinidad and British Guiana, have been 
supplied with large quantities of Liberian coffee seed 
gathered from the plants so carefully raised by Dr. Imray. 
The cultivation of this new species of coffee has attracted 
considerable attention in all parts of the tropical world, 
and efforts have been made to establish the plant in most 
