Am'lnZ'imarm'}      Cultivation  of  Coffee  in  Jamaica.  399 
indeed  are  most  of  the  shrubs  and  trees  in  the  tropics),  of  a  firm 
texture,  smooth  and  shiny  above.  They  are  opposite,  oval,  entire, 
and  borne  on  short  petioles  about  one-half  an  inch  long.  They  are 
three  to  five  inches  long,  two  to  three  inches  wide,  and  are  termin- 
ated by  acuminate  points. 
The  flowers  are  white,  borne  in  clusters  of  three  to  six  in  the 
axils  of  the  leaves,  and  are  exceedingly  fragrant.  The  petals  are 
five,  slender,  spreading.  The  shrubs  begin  to  blossom  in  February 
and  continue  in  flower  up  to  May ;  the  fullest  bloom  is  in  March 
and  April.  Coffee  does  not  blossom  as  our  fruit  trees,  all  at  once> 
and  go  out  of  bloom  in  a  week  or  two,  but  continues  to  bloom  for 
about  four  months,  and  the  crop  in  consequence  ripens  through  the 
same  length  of  time,  and  the  planters  are  thus  enabled  to  gather 
and  care  for  it  to  better  advantage  than  if  it  all  ripened  at  once. 
The  coffee  season  lasts  from  September  to  December,  September 
and  October  being  the  principal  months.  The  coffee  berries  are 
borne  on  short  stalks  in  clusters  of  three  to  six  in  the  axils  of  the 
leaves.  When  ripe  they  are  about  the  size  of  cherries,  but  are  oval 
(not  globular),  and  slightly  compressed  on  the  side.  Each  berry 
consists  of  two  seeds  (familiar  to  us  as  the  green  coffee  of  commerce), 
each  seed  enclosed  in  a  thick,  tough  white  skin  called  the  parch- 
ment skin,  placed  in  the  berry  with  the  flat  surfaces  together,  and 
surrounded  with  a  small  quantity  of  sweetened  pulp,  the  whole 
enclosed  in  a  thick  skin  like  a  Malaga  grape.  The  color  of  the  skin 
when  ripe  is  red,  not  a  bright  red  like  a  cherry,  but  a  pale  dull  red. 
The  berries  are  picked  by  negro  and  coolie  women,  who  go  over 
the  coffee  shrubs,  picking  the  ripe  berries  into  baskets,  and  are  paid 
by  measure.  The  price  varies  according  to  abundance  of  the  ber- 
ries, but  is  regulated  so  that  a  woman  makes  about  ninepence  (18 
cents)  a  day.  '  Rats  are  very  fond  of  the  sweetish  pulp  that  surrounds 
the  coffee  grains,  and  they  climb  the  shrubs  and  gnaw  off  a  great 
many  berries.  Birds  are  also  said  to  pick  them,  and  lizards — which 
are  very  numerous  in  Jamaica — are  charged  also  with  despoiling  the 
fruit.  This  "  rat  "  coffee  is  picked  from  the  ground  by  the  women, 
and  comprises  about  one-fourth  of  the  crop.  It  furnishes  a  larger 
proportion  of  heavy  grains  than  the  berries  gathered  from  the 
shrubs,  as  the  rats  are  credited  with  selecting  the  largest  and  best 
berries,  and  it  is  kept  separate  in  all  the  subsequent  operations.  As 
the  bulk  of  this  coffee  is  supposed  to  be  gnawed  off  by  the  rats,  all 
