Chapter III: Botanical Characteristics and Form

This now important and valuable article of food was known to the early inhabitants of Ethiopia, where its virtues were first discovered and used, as _Bun_, signifying “brown” or “roasted.” In Arabia it is termed _Kawah_, meaning “strength” or “vigor,” the infusion being called _Quahouch_; while to the Turks it is known as _Chaube_ in the bean, and _Kahve_ in the liquid state; to Persians, _Karweh_; to the natives of the Malay Archipelago as _Kopi_, and finally _Kaffa_ or _Caffia_ by the inhabitants of that district, situated in the Province of Narca, in southeastern Abyssinia, where it is to be found growing in wild abundance, even at the present day, whence its botanical name, _Coffea_, adopted by Linnæus and others.

The genus known as _Coffea_ is divided by botanists into some sixty species, of which fifteen are referred to Africa, seven to Asia and about twenty-two to America; but there is abundant reason for supposing that the majority of these so-called _species_ are but mere varieties, a single _genus_, due to different conditions of soil, climate and cultivation, three of which it will be sufficient for all practical purposes to distinguish in this work. It is classed botanically as a species coming under the head of the _Pentandria_ of Linnæus and the family _Rubiceæ_, although by others it is placed among the _Cinchonaceæs_ family of plants which comprise numerous species of tropical berry-bearing shrubs, one of which only is known to possess valuable properties celebrated for the agreeable and stimulating effect of an infusion made from its roasted albumen.

The common Coffee shrub is an evergreen plant, which, under natural conditions, grows to a height of from eighteen to twenty feet, having the appearance of an upright, slender tree, with main stem very erect, and free from branches for the greater part of its height, but opening at the top into drooping branches, few but long, with an abundance of fine fibrous roots under ground, and an all-important top-root. But in a state of cultivation it is a shrub of close and systematic growth of low-standing, and averaging only from four to six feet in height, its upward growth being checked by the pruning-knife of the cultivator, and also trained by frequent cutting and topping so as to assume a pyramidal form for the purpose of increasing the quantity and improving the quality of its product as well as to facilitate the picking of its crop. The branches are bracheate, horizontal, simple and opposite, growing regularly from the ground up, but trailing towards the top, cylindrical in form, flexible, loose and expanding out and downwards like those of the apple tree, and extremely pleasing in general appearance. The leaves are from five to six inches in length, and from two to three wide in the middle when full grown, oblong-ovate, accuminate, smooth, and of a dark, shiny-green color on the upper surface, but pale underneath, firm and leathery in texture, closely resembling those of the Portuguese laurel, continuing three years, and possessing slightly tonic and stimulating properties. The flowers, which are produced in dense clusters in the axils of the leaves fitting close to the axils, are funnel-shaped and small but numerous, having a five-toothed calyx, a tubular five-parted corolla, five stamens and a single bifid style, snow-white in color, possessing a rich, fragrant odor, approaching that of the jessamine, the plants in blossom having a peculiarly rich and attractive appearance, the bloom being very evanescent and of short duration, but are quickly followed by fruit, there being generally two, sometimes three, relays of blossoms before all the buds mature, until after a day or two, when they gradually turn brown and fade away; the slower and more gradual this process the better for the crop, which is always estimated by the abundance of the blossoms. The fruit, which quickly follows in the hollow of the leaves, is a fleshy or “pulpy” berry, at first greenish and hard to the touch, assumes a yellowish hue as it continues to ripen under the meridian sun, the color deepening not regularly but by crimson or scarlet shades and tints which spread over the surface, having at this stage the size and appearance of a small cherry, assuming a dark-red or deep, glossy purple black color with a smooth and bloomless cuticle as it matures. In both states of flower and fruit nature is nowhere so profuse and beautiful in the variety of its colors and forms. The plant, being an evergreen, the foliage is always fresh, and, though, in the autumn season, the blossoms appear scattered among the dark-green leaves, resembling flakes of snow, they are hardly ever absent from the tree. It continues to put forth fruit, while the blossoms are arriving at maturity, and nothing is more singular or striking of its kind than its producing capabilities, as at all seasons, leaves, blossoms and ripe fruit are to be seen on the same tree at the same time, and the fruit may be gathered at any period, but the regular harvests are usually two in the course of a year.

Each fruit contains two seeds embedded in a yellowish pulp, the seeds being again enclosed in a thin membraneous parchment. The _Epicarp_ or outer-skin of the berry is at first dark-green in color, but assumes a yellow and finally a bright-scarlet color as it ripens, becoming dark-purple as it dries, having a little circular area at the summit and a callous point through it. In this condition it contains a mucilaginous, saccharine, glutinous substance, technically termed the “pulp,” a succulent, sweet and palatable matter, closely enveloping the seeds, frequently eaten by the pickers. Another substance, known as the _Mesocarp_, secures and separates the _Pyrenes_ or seeds, and as the fruit dries this mesocarp hardens and becomes part of the shell or hull surrounding the seeds, which it becomes necessary to remove by a milling or hulling process in order to free them from this covering. These pyrenes or seeds are again invested by a cartilaginous membrane termed the _Endocarp_, but commonly known as the “parchment,” a papery, elastic substance, loosely but completely enveloping them. On removing this parchment we have exposed two small, oval seeds facing each other, though sometimes there is but one called from its shape male or “pea-berry.” These seeds, which constitute the raw Coffee 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 extending their entire length. When first exposed they are of a soft, semi-translucent bluish or greenish color, afterwards becoming hard, tough or flinty in texture, in which state it is known as “rice coffee,” the bulk of which forms the Coffees of commerce. This seed or “bean” as it is called in trade is still incased in what is known as the _Testa_, another covering which forms an integument of the seed and which is known to commerce as the “silver-skin,” the mass of the coffee beneath this testa being termed the _Albumen_. Contained in this albumen and embedded near its base is to be found the _Embryo_. The first of these structures, that is, the epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp, belong to the fruit or berry, the other three, that is, the testa, albumen and embryo, being essentially parts of the seed or bean. The uses of these various structures surrounding the embryo are to protect it from injury and at the same time supply it with proper nourishment until such time as it is enabled to take care of itself. The testa or silver-skin enveloping every part of the albumen, following and dipping into the furrow on the face of the Coffee bean by its tough, leatherly nature, acts as an effectual protection to the delicate structures contained within. The albumen, bearing the same relation to the bean that flour does to wheat, the white-meat to cocoanut, and the aromatic, ruminated secretion to the nutmeg. It is a secretion, found in the _internal_ of the seed, enveloping the embryo plant, and for the support of which it is destined when it first begins to germinate. Each perfect Coffee berry should contain two such oval seeds, placed facing each other, the flat sides opposite; but it frequently occurs that only one seed forms, the other becoming abortive, and variously known as “virgin” “male” or “pea-berry.” Coffee seeds are generally termed “beans” in commerce, a term not derived from any resemblance they may have to a bean; while, again, they are termed by many as “berries,” the latter term being applicable only to the fruit or pod, the term “bean” being more appropriate to the seed.

SUB-VARIETIES.

According to some botanists, there is but one genus of the Coffee plant,--_Coffea Arabica_,--others, again, contending that there are two separate and distinct species, classified as _Coffea Orientalis_ and _Coffea Occidentalis_. While admitting but one genus, the difference in size, appearance and product being attributed by them to a variation in soil, climate and methods of cultivation, there are three principal varieties, however, readily distinguished and recognized by those who have much to do with it, and are known to commerce as _Coffea Arabica_, _Coffea Liberica_ and _Coffea Maragogipe_, lately discovered in Brazil, all of which or their transplants furnish the Coffees of commerce.

Or “Arabian Coffee plant,” is the best-known species, being an evergreen, partaking more of the nature of a shrub, which, in a state of cultivation, varies in height from four to six feet, its foliage resembling that of Portuguese laurel. The trunk is erect and slender, averaging about three inches in diameter and covered with a whitish-brown bark, rather rough in appearance. The branches are numerous, ordinarily bending downwards when the plant begins to grow old, but when young and vigorous extend in a round form like an umbrella. The wood is very limber and pliable, so much so that the ends of the longest branches may be bent down to within three inches of the ground without snapping. The leaves are oval in form, dark green in color, shiny and sharp pointed as those of the citron tree, ranged on the branches opposite, but at a little distance from each other. The flowers or blossoms are also numerous, clustering with projecting antlers, snowy-white and very fragrant, but of short duration, disappearing quick, but rapidly followed by the fruit springing apparently from them. The fruit is a small berry, green at first, but assuming a rich scarlet as it ripens. From this species has been propagated the numerous varieties now known to commerce. The range of this species is at elevations of from 1,000 to 4,000 feet above sea-level between the latitudes of 15° north and 15° south, but its cultivation may be extended for commercial purposes to 36° north and 30° south in latitudes where the temperature does not fall below 55°; still the most favorable climate for it would be where the temperature does not fall below 60° to 80° in the shade, and as to humidity there should be no month in the year entirely devoid of rain, the total of which should range from 100 to 150 inches per annum, that is, an absence of extremes of temperature with a constant supply of moisture. This species is cultivated chiefly in Arabia, India, Ceylon, Natal, Java, Sumatra and other islands in the Malay Archipelago, as well as in Mexico, the West Indies, Central and South America and recently in Australasia, furnishing almost the whole of the coffees of commerce.

Or “Liberian Coffee plant,” which has recently been brought forward as a rival to the Arabian variety, is an indigenous species found both in a wild and cultivated state on the west coast of Africa, and which in an adult cultivated state ranges in height from fifteen to twenty feet, being of tree-like habits. The trunk is thick, very erect, and covered with a dark-brown bark of a downy texture. The branches also differ from those of the Arabian species insomuch as they do not possess the horizontal, drooping tendency so characteristic of the latter, being also hardier and more prolific. The leaves are proportionately large, varying in length from eight to fifteen inches and in many instances from four to five inches in width at their widest part. They are dark-green in color, leathery in texture, and instead of the wedge-shaped base, narrowing as it approaches the petitole or stalk; it more resembles the continuation of the extremity of the leaf itself. The flowers are also fewer, never more than six to eight in a cluster, are much larger, but devoid of fragrance. The fruit, as may be inferred from the tree-like habits of this species, is extremely large, averaging an inch to an inch and a quarter in length, ellipsoidal in form, and characteristically pointed at both ends. It lacks the bright red color of the Arabian variety, when ripe, being commonly of a dull red, approaching brown, becoming black as it dries. The pulp is also thicker, fibrous and more fleshy, but lacking in succulence, and cannot be eaten; the parchment being hard and brittle, dark-brown in color and never clear. The testa, or silver-skin, is much stronger, tougher, and more tightly rolled into the deep, narrow furrow on the face. The seed or bean is also extremely large in size, peculiar in form, what is known as “male” or “pea-berry” in form is dark-brown in color, solid and heavy in weight and exceedingly strong in flavor. Taken altogether, the wide divergence in the general appearance and habits of this variety, the culture of the leaves, lesser number of flowers, size, weight, color, peculiar formation, and other characteristics, stamp it as a distinct species of the genus _Coffea_.

Increasing attention is lately being devoted to this species. It is a native of Liberia, and is to be found growing wild in great abundance along the whole of the Guinea coast and is to be distinguished from the ordinary shrub by much more vigorous growth, by affecting flat, low and coast lands as well as hill sides, by attaining greater size and withstanding greater extremes of climate. It also possesses the additional advantage in that it is capable of improvement by cultivation, and though as liable to disease as the Arabian plant, appears to be affected only in a minor degree, while on the other hand the product is much coarser flavored, which is considered no drawback to its being used for admixture with better sorts, by which means it yields a cheap, yet genuine beverage. Experiments have been lately tried in Ceylon of grafting the finer flavored Arabian on the stocks of this species, thus producing a hybrid from which great benefits are anticipated in the future. It is a species, moreover, which grows well in low altitudes, and would probably flourish is situations that have proved unsuitable for the Arabian plant, and should it come up to the sanguine expectations of the Java, Ceylon, Mexican, South American and other planters, to whom it has been submitted for experiment, there is no doubt but that it will prove a formidable rival to the species which have hitherto received the exclusive attention of planters generally.

Or “Brazilian Coffee plant,” is a new and indigenous variety, recently discovered in the province of that name, in Brazil, much larger than the Arabian, but smaller than the Liberian. It grows with extraordinary vigor, coming into full bearing much sooner than either of the foregoing varieties, trees of two to three years attaining a height of eight to ten feet, being full of fruit at that age, the berry and product per acre being also larger. Planters who have adopted this variety are so well pleased with the results obtained that they are replacing the regular species with it, all agreeing that in size of berry, style of bean, strength and flavor, it is a species to be recommended.

OTHER VARIETIES.

There are numerous other varieties of the Coffee plant, closely allied, but still markedly distinct from the foregoing species, inasmuch as they do not possess any valuable or intrinsic properties, being cultivated only for the sake of their foliage or flowers. Among which is that of:--

=Coffea Mauritiana.=--Found on the island of Mauritius, and evidently belonging to the Arabian species, yet claimed by La Marche to be specifically distinct from it, on account of the difference in the size and form of its fruit. This eminent botanist must have been unaccountably negligent with respect to its specific character, having retained the description given by Linnæus of the Arabian plant, which is in the Plantarium described as entirely opposite to it.

=Coffea Guinensis.=--A native of Guinea, on the west coast of Africa, and a shrub from one to two feet high, with flowers quadrified, berries small and violet-colored, seeds two in number, cartilaginous and pointed at the ends; but found to be entirely devoid of the valuable or stimulating properties so characteristic of those of the true Coffee plant.

=Coffea Panenlato.=--Another species, also found on the Guinea coast, being a shrub having a large trunk, from seven to eight feet high, covered with a gray, cracked bark and yielding a fruit totally different from that of Coffee.

=Coffea Racemora.=--A species found in a wild state on the east coast of Africa, and in a state of cultivation in the vicinity of Zanzibar. It is a small, upright, tree-like plant about six feet high, heavy in foliage and flowering, but devoid of fragrance and barren of fruit.

=Coffea Trifora.=--A shrub of about six feet high, found in Othahetai, foliaceous and flowery, but producing no fruit. This particular variety is also to be found in Jamaica, San Domingo, Martinique and other islands of the West Indies. Many other species such as the _Coffea Fambasena_, a native of the Friendly Islands, _Coffea Ghengalensis_, grown in Nepaul, _Coffea Opulina_ and the _Cirdorata_, the latter being claimed to be analogous to the true Coffee plant, and is extensively grown on the island of Tamai, and many others cultivated principally for their seeds.