COFFEA, the Coffee-Tree. The flowers, which are produced in clusters at the root of the leaves, are of a pure white, and have a very grateful odour. The fruit, which is the only useful part, resembles a cherry. When it comes to be of a deep red, it is gathered for the mill, in order to be manufactured into those coffee-beans now so generally known. The mill is composed of two wooden rollers, furnished with iron plates eighteen inches long and ten or twelve in diameter. These movable rollers are made to approach a third, which is fixed, and which is called the chops. Above the rollers is a hopper, in which is put the coffee, whence it falls between the rollers and the chops, where it is stripped of its first skin, and divided into two parts, as may be seen by its form after it has undergone this operation, being flat on the one side and round on the other. From this machine it falls into a brass sieve, where the skin drops between the wires, while the fruit slides over them into baskets placed ready to receive it. It is then thrown into a vessel full of water, where it soaks for one night, and is afterwards thoroughly washed. When the whole is finished and well dried, it is put into another machine called the peeling-mill. This is a wooden grinder, turned vertically upon its trundle by a mule or horse. In passing over the coffee it takes off the parchment, or thin skin, which detaches itself from the berry in proportion as it grows dry. The parchment being removed, it is taken out of this mill to be put into another, which is called the winnowing-mill. This machine is provided with four pieces of tin fixed upon an axle, which is turned by a slave with considerable force; and the wind produced by the motion of these plates clears the coffee of all the pellicles that are mixed with it. It is afterwards put upon a table, where [7:7:18]the broken berries, and any filth that may remain among them, are separated by negroes; after which the coffee is fit for sale.

The coffee-tree is cultivated in Arabia, Persia, the East Indies, the Isle of Bourbon, and several parts of America and the West Indies. It is also raised in botame gardens in several parts of Europe. It delights particularly in hills and mountains, where its root is almost always dry, and its head frequently watered with gentle showers f It prefers a western aspect, and ploughed ground without any appearance of grass. The plants should be placed at eight feet distance from each other, and in holes twelve or fifteen feet deep. If left to themselves, they would, as already observed, rise to the height of sixteen or eighteen feet; but they are generally stinted to five, for the convenience of gathering their fruit with the greater ease. Thus dwarfed, they extend their branches so that they cover the whole spot round about them; and they begin to yield fruit the third year, but are not in full bearing till the fifth. With the same infirmities that most other trees are subject to, they are likewise in danger of being destroyed by a worm, or by the scorching rays of the sun. The hills where the coffee-trees are found have generally a gravelly or chalky bottom. In the latter soil it languishes for some time and then dies; in the former, its roots, which seldom fail to strike between stones, obtain nourishment, and keep the tree alive and fruitful for thirty years. This is nearly the period for plants of the coffee-tree. The proprietor, at the end of this period, not only finds himself without trees, but has his land so reduced that it is not fit for any kind of culture; and unless he be so situated that he can break up a spot of virgin land, to make himself amends for that which is totally exhausted by the coffee-trees, his loss is irreparable.

Coffee also denotes the drink prepared from these berries, which has been familiar in Europe for a hundred years, and among the Turks for a hundred and seventy.

Its origin is not well known. Some ascribe it to the prior of a monastery, who being informed by a goatherd that his cattle, when they happened to browse on the tree, remained awake and capered all night, became curious to prove its virtue; and accordingly he first tried it on his monks, to prevent their sleeping at matins. Others, following Schehabeddin, refer the invention of coffee to the Persians, from whom it was learned in the fifteenth century by Gemaleddin, mufti of Aden, a city near the mouth of the Red Sea, and who having tried its virtues himself, and found that it dissipated the fumes which oppressed the head, inspired joy, opened the bowels, and prevented sleep, without producing any countervailing inconvenience, first recommended it to his dervises, with whom he used to spend the night in prayer; and their example brought coffee into vogue at Aden; the professors of the law, artisans, travellers, in short, every body at Aden, drinking coffee. It next passed to Mecca, where the devotees first, then the rest of the people, took coffee. From Arabia Felix it passed to Cairo; and in 1511, Kahie Beg prohibited it, from a persuasion that it inebriated, and inclined to things forbidden; but Sultan Causon immediately after removed the prohibition, and coffee advanced from Egypt to Syria and Constantinople. The dervises declaimed against it from the Alcoran, which declares that coal is not of the number of thingscreated by God for food; and the mufti accordingly ordered the coffee-houses to be shut; but his successor declaring coffee not to be coal, they were again opened. During the war in Candia, the assemblies of newsmongers making too free with state affairs, the grand visier Cuproli suppressed the coffeehouses at Constantinople; but this did not prevent the public from using this beverage; and it has ever since been tolerated, if not legalised. Thevenot the traveller was the first who brought it into France; and a Greek servant, named Pasqua, brought into England by Mr Daniel Edwards, a Turkey merchant, in 1652, first commenced the profession of coffee-man, and introduced the beverage into this island.

Coffee Trade. From the great increase in the consumption of coffee in this as well as in other countries, the value of the article, the amount of capital and labour employed in its production, and the quantity of shipping required for its transport, it has become a commodity of great commercial importance. The duties which have been levied upon it have varied considerably at different periods. In 1819 the duty was raised from sevenpence to one shilling per lb.; and the quantity entered for home consumption in 1824 was 7,993,041 lbs., yielding a revenue of L. 407,544. 4s. 3d. In 1824, however, the duty was lowered to sixpence per lb., and the quantity entered for home consumption, in 1825, was 10,766,112 lbs. In 1828 it increased to 16,522,422 lbs., and at present may be estimated at 22,000,000 lbs., producing a revenue of about L. 580,000. In the year ending January 1831, the quantity imported into the united kingdom from all parts was 40,952,163 lbs., and the quantity exported to all parts 20,087,994 lbs. The following is an estimate of the annual exports of coffee from the principal places where it is produced, and of its annual consumption in those countries into which it is imported from abroad at the present time:

The diserepancy here between the supply and the demand is in some measure to be accounted for from the circumstance that we are without the means of arriving at very accurate conclusions, either as to the supply or the consumption of coffee. The above, however, is as close an approximation to the truth as can be obtained.