COFFEE. This well-known beverage is an infusion of the roasted albumen of the seeds of the C. tree (coffaa Arabica), a native of Abyssinia and Arabia, but now natura lized in many of the tropical countries colonized by Europeans. There are a number of species of coffwa, but this one only is known to possess valuable properties; the seeds of U. mauritiana prepared in the same way, are bitter and slightly emetic. The genus belongs to the natural order cinchonacece. It has a tubular 4 to 5 cleft corolla, and a suc culent fruit containing two cells lined with a cartilaginous membrane, and each con taining one seed.
In a wild state, the C. tree is a slender tree of 15 to 25 ft. high, with few branches; in cultivation, it is seldom allowed to become more than 6 to 10 ft. high, and is made to assume a sort of pyramidal form, with horizontal branches almost from the ground. The leaves are evergreen, opposite, very shining, oblong, and leathery; the flowers are small, clustered in the arils of the leaves, and snow-white; the whole appearance of the tree is very pleasing; and the smell of the flowers is delicious. The fruit, when ripe, is of a dark-scarlet color, and the seeds are semi-elliptic, and of a horny hardness. The seeds are commonly termed C. beans, but this name is not derived from a resemblance to beans, which they have not, but from the Arabic word, bunn. They are sometimes, but very incorrectly, designated C. berries.
The C. tree succeeds only in countries where the average temperature of the year is about 64° to 70° F. In Peru and Quito, it is acclimatized at an elevation of 6,000 ft., where, however, frost never occurs; but as it delights in a moist atmosphere, it nowhere thrives better than in tropical islands. The fruit ripens in the hot-houses of Britain, where the C. tree frequently fibwers. C. plantations are laid out pretty much in the same way everywhere. In quadrangles, bordered by fruit-trees, the C. trees stand in rows; they are pruned to the same height, and the ground between them is carefully kept clear of weeds. Where the climate is dry, abundant irrigation is necessary, but the supply of water is cut off as the fruit begins to ripen, in order to the improvement of its quality.
The tree yields its first crop in the third year; the crop from a full-grown tree may amount to a pound of C. beans. As the C. tree continues flowering for eight months, its fruits are at any time of very unequal ripeness; in the West Indies and Brazil, three gatherings are therefore made annually. The beans are placed on mats or large floors specially adapted for the purpose, where they are dried by the sun's rays, being mean while frequently turned. They are passed between rollers to remove the dried pulp of the bean, and the membrane which iucloses the seeds themselves, and the C. is after wards freed from impurities by winnowing, and conveyed in bags to the seaports. As equal care is not, however, bestowed upon the preparation of it in all places where it is cultivated, there are great differences in quality and priee.—The earlier history of the C. tree is not very clear. It was not known to the Greeks or Romans; but in Abyssinia and Ethiopia it has been used from time immemorial; and in Arabia it was certainly in use in the 15th c., and over the rest of the east in the 16th century. Towards the end of the 17th c., it was carried from Mocha to Batavia by Wieser, a burgomaster of Amster dam, where it was soon extensively planted, and at last young plants were sent to the botanical garden at Amsterdam, from which the Paris garden obtained a tree. A layer of this was carried out to Martinique in 1720, where it succeeded so well, that in a few years all the West Indies could be supplied with young trees.
The following sorts are particularly distinguished from each other in commerce. Mocha C., which comes from Arabia, and is known by its small gray beans inclining to greenish; Java or East Indian C., which has large yellow beans; Jamaica C., with beans somewhat smaller and greenish; Surinam. C., which has the largest beans; Bourbon C., with beans pale yellow and almost whitish.