, smooth and shining leaves, measuring about 6
in. in length by 2-1/2 wide. Its flowers, which are produced in dense
clusters in the axils of the leaves, have a five-toothed calyx, a
tubular five-parted corolla, five stamens and a single bifid style. The
flowers are pure white in colour, with a rich fragrant odour, and the
plants in blossom have a lovely and attractive appearance, but the bloom
is very evanescent. The fruit is a fleshy berry, having the appearance
and size of a small cherry, and as it ripens it assumes a dark red
colour. Each fruit contains two seeds embedded in a yellowish pulp, and
the seeds are enclosed in a thin membranous endocarp (the "parchment").
Between each seed and the parchment is a delicate covering called the
"silver skin." The seeds which constitute the raw coffee "beans" of
commerce are plano-convex in form, the flat surfaces which are laid
against each other within the berry having a longitudinal furrow or
groove. When only one seed is developed in a fruit it is not flattened
on one side, but circular in cross section. Such seeds form "pea-berry"
coffee.

The seeds are of a soft, semi-translucent, bluish or greenish colour,
hard and tough in texture. The regions best adapted for the cultivation
of coffee are well-watered mountain slopes at an elevation ranging from
1000 to 4000 ft. above sea-level, within the tropics, and possessing a
mean annual temperature of about 65 deg. to 70 deg. F.

The Liberian coffee plant (_C. liberica_) has larger leaves, flowers and
fruits, and is of a more robust and hardy constitution, than Arabian
coffee. The seeds yield a highly aromatic and well-flavoured coffee (but
by no means equal to Arabian), and the plant is very prolific and yields
heavy crops. Liberian coffee grows, moreover, at low altitudes, and
flourishes in many situations unsuitable to the Arabian coffee. It grows
wild in great abundance along the whole of the Guinea coast.

_History._--The early history of coffee as an economic product is
involved in considerable obscurity, the absence of fact being
compensated for by a profusion of conjectural statements and mythical
stories. The use of coffee (_C. arabica_) in Abyssinia was recorded in
the 15th century, and was then stated to have been practised from time
immemorial. Neighbouring countries, however, appear to have been quite
ignorant of its value. Various legendary accounts are given of the
discovery of the beneficial properties of the