The weekly union record., 1864-03-19
The union RECORD
THE FOREST.

Elastlca) IS found III Hlndossan anu
in the islands Of the Indian Archipelago,
and among the natives It passes by the
name Of kasmeer. and the gum Is cal
led by the names Of jintawan, sa.kwah,
and dollah. Tie Botanical history Of
this gum IS peculiar. Il IS produced only
in the intense heats Of the equator. It
was in the luxgriant tropical vegetation
Of South America that the india rubber
tree was first discovered and made
known to the world. Il IS found, in
deed, in It's greatest perfection upon
that equatorial ring which modern
science has traced around tie globe,
and which furnishes to tie ceolog.st the
most convincing proof that, far back in
the early dawn Of t.me--the solid globe
was in a state Of fusion.
In South America, under the name
of cayutchouc the gum IS produced
from a tree called the Siptoniq elasticG,
but it is also obtained IN the East indies
and other quarters Of the globe. The
East India rubber, as it Is called in
commerce, Is the product Of the fscus
elkstica, one Of the most beautiful trees
in the world.
COFFEE TREE.-Is a native Of Alb
yssinia, and not of Arabia, as many be
lieve, and abounds in the province of
Kaffa, whence it derives its name.
The coffee tree was not transplanted
from Abyssinia into Asia until the fl
teenth century. when its culture was be
gun in Arabia Felix, where, in the en-
virons of Mocha it grows to perfection.
The western world learned the use Of
coffee from the Orientals but how the
Orientals learned to use it, is a difficult
question to solve. An Arabian author
Of theffteen the century records that it
was a Mufti Of Alden, who, in the ninth
century, was the first to use coffee. At
this epoch it was already known in
Persia, where common tradition ascrIbes
its discovery to one AIollah Chadclly,
pious AIusselman, who was much
troubled with drow -incss during his noe
turnal meditations. He invoked Ma
homet to come to his aid, who caused
his faithful Nollah to meet with a goat
herder, who led him to a coffee tree,
and informed that whenever his goats
ate of the berry Of that trce they
passed the whole night wide awake,
leaping and capering.
The deyout MoiIah prepared an intu-
sion of the berry, which, after drinking,
gave him for the whole night a most de-
lectable state Of sleopleness. lie made
known his discovery, which was adopted
by all the deryishes and doctors Of the
land, and the new beverage rapidly be-
came popular over the whole Oric>e5.
There are other versions Of the discoy-
cry of the use of coffee as a beverage.
1t is believed that the dervizhes learned
this means Of overcoming sleep from
the Cenobite Christians Of TleGes and
Ethiopia, who adopted tn practice Of
drinking coffee. The Mohommedian
priests soon became enemies Of tile new
beverage, however. as it led the people
to forSako the mosques and flock to tie
offee-houses, and they hurled the
iercest anathemas gainst it, but with
out avail
Before the seventeenth century, cof-
fee was only known by name in Franco,
and it did not become fashionable until
Solomon Ara, tile Turkish Amla ador
to the court cf Louis NV, gave an cc'qt
to coffee by offering il to the high-b0m
danes of the realm, curiosity and vanity
led them to the Aga's ra ideucc, where
he received .hcm with oriental macniG-
cence, and coffee was the rage. About
the same time it became layorite in
Vienna, the method OF its preparation
having been learned from some Turks
captured in battle, twenty years before,
it was introduced into England bv a
British merchant from Constantinop,e.
In Franco the coAce-hou-e became
exceedingly popular, and n0tvith>tand
ing the immense quantities Of Wine
drank in Franco, there Is probably no
country, except Turkey and the United
States, 50 thoroughly given to coffee.
Tea is hardly known t-le tAc great
cities. \ significant index of the uni-
versal use Of coiiecis the tact shat. what
we call tea spoon, the French in}ari-
abl V call a coffee spoon.
Up to the 18th century all the coffee
which was consumed inEuropeeame from
Arabia, but in 1859, the Dutch intro
duced the tree into Batavia, where it
fourished, and in 17lo a tree was sent
TO the botanical gardens Of Amsterdam,
where it hourished. An oiisloor was
presented to Louis XIV, who scut il to
the Jardcn des Plants, and 1t became
the ancestor of all the coffee plantations
in the West Indies; the Freacl gov
ernment succeeded, in 1920, in intro
ducing ii into Martinique.
1t is uncertain when the coffee troc