the COFFEE-TREE. See BOTANY Index. 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 18 inches long, and 10 or 12 in diameter. These moveable rollers are made to approach a third which is fixed, and which they call the chops. Above the rollers is a hopper, in which they put the coffee, from 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 the form of it 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 trendle by a mule or horse. In passing over the coffee it takes off the parchment, which is nothing but a thin skin that 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 twinmowing-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 that is made 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 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. It is also raised in botanic gardens in several parts of Europe. Prince Eugene's garden at Vienna produced more coffee than was sufficient for his own consumption. It delights particularly in hills and mountains, where its root is almost always dry, and its head frequently watered with gentle showers. 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 inches deep. If left to themselves, they would rise to the height of 16 or 18 feet, as already observed; but they are generally stunted 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. 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, these 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 last, it languishes for some time and then dies; in the former, its roots, which seldom fail of striking between stones, obtain nourishment, and keep the tree alive and fruitful for 30 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 reduced that it is not fit for any kind of culture; and unless he is 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.

The coffee produced in Arabia is found so greatly to excel that raised in the American plantations elsewhere, that the cultivation of the tree is now but seldom practised in any of the British colonies. Large plantations of this kind were formerly made in some of them; and it was proposed to the parliament to give a proper encouragement for cultivating this commodity there, so as to enable the planters to undersell the importers from Arabia. Accordingly, there was an abatement of the duty payable on all coffee imported from our colonies in America, which at that time was supposed to be sufficient encouragement for this kind of commerce; but the inferiority of the American coffee to the Arabian hath almost ruined the project. Mr Miller proposes some improvements in the method of cultivation. According to him, the trees are planted in too moist a soil, and the berries are gathered too soon. They ought, he says, to be permitted to remain on the trees till their skins are shrivelled, and they fall from the trees when shaken. This will indeed greatly diminish their weight, but the value of the commodity will thereby be increased to more than double of that which is gathered sooner. In Arabia, they always shake the berries off the trees, spreading cloths to receive them, and only take such as readily fall at each time. Another cause may be the method of drying the berries. They are, he observes, very apt to imbibe moisture, or the flavour of anything placed near them. A bottle of rum placed in a closet, in which a canister of coffee-berries closely stopped, was standing on a shelf at a considerable distance, in a few days so impregnated the berries as to render them very disagreeable. Some years ago, a coffee-ship from India had a few bags of pepper put on board, the flavour of which was imbibed by the coffee, and the whole cargo spoiled. For these reasons coffee-berries should never be brought over in ships freighted with rum, or laid to dry in the houses where sugars are boiled or rum distilled. When they are fully ripe, they should be taken off when the trees are perfectly dry, and spread upon cloths to dry in the sun, carrying them every evening under cover, to prevent the dews or rain from falling on them. When perfectly dry, they should have their outer skins beaten off, and then be carefully packed up in cloths or bags three or four times double.

Coffee also denotes a kind of drink, prepared from those berries; very familiar in Europe for these 100 years, and among the Turks for 170.

Its origin is not well known. Some ascribe it to the prior of a monastery, who being informed by a goat-herd, that his cattle sometimes browsing on the tree would wake and caper all night, became curious to prove its virtue: accordingly he first tried it on his monks, to prevent their sleeping at matins. Others, from Schahabeddin, refer the invention of coffee to the Persians, from whom it was learned in the 13th century by Gemaluddin, 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 being incommodeed by it, recommended it first to his dervises, with whom he used to spend the night in prayer. Their example brought coffee into vogue at Aden; the professors of the law for study, artisans to work, travellers to walk in the night, in fine every body at Aden, drank coffee. Hence it passed to Mecca, where first the devotees, then the rest of the people, took it. From Arabia Felix it passed to Cairo. In 1511, Kahie Beg prohibited it, from a persuasion that it inebriated, and inclined to things forbidden. But Sultan Causon immediately after took off 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 things created by God for food. Accordingly the mufti 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 news-mongers making too free with state affairs, the grand visir Cuproli suppressed the coffee-houses at Constantinople, which suppression, though still on foot, does not prevent the public use of the liquor there. Thevenot the traveller, was the first who brought it into France; and a Greek servant, named Pasqua, brought it into England by Mr Dan. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, in 1652, to make his coffee, first set up the profession of coffee-man, and introduced the drink into this island.

The word coffee is originally Arabic: the Turks pronounce it caheb, and the Arabians caheh; which some authors maintain to be a general name for any thing that takes away the appetite, others for any thing that promotes appetite, and others again for any thing that gives strength and vigour.—The Mahometans, it is observed, distinguish three kinds of caheh. The first is wine, or any liquor that inebriates; the second is made of the pods that contain the coffee-berry; this they call the Sultan's coffee, from their having first introduced it on account of its heating less than the berry, as well as its keeping the bowels open; the third is that made with the berry itself, which alone is used in Europe, the pods being found improper for transportation. Some Europeans who imported the pods, called them the flower of the coffee-tree. The deep brown colour of the liquor occasioned its being called syrup of the Indian mulberry, under which specious name it first gained ground in Europe.

The preparation of coffee consists in roasting, or giving it a just degree of torrefaction on an earthen or metallic plate, till it has acquired a brownish hue equally deep on all sides. It is then ground in a mill, as much as serves the present occasion. A proper quantity of water is next boiled, and the ground coffee put into it. After it has just boiled, it is taken from the fire, and the decoction having stood a while to settle and fine, they pour or decant it into dishes. The ordinary method of roasting coffee among us is in a tin cylindrical box full of holes, through the middle whereof runs a spit. Under this is a semicircular hearth, whereon is a large charcoal fire: by help of a jack the spit turns swift, and so roasts the berry, being now and then taken up to be shaken. When the oil rises, and it is grown of a dark brown colour, it is emptied into two receivers made with large hoops, whose bottoms are iron plates: there the coffee is shaken, and left till almost cold; and if it look bright and oily, it is a sign it is well done.

Very different accounts have been given of the medicinal qualities of this berry. To determine its real effects on the human body, Dr Percival has made several experiments, the result of which he gives in the following words: "From these observations we may infer, that coffee is slightly astringent and antiseptic; that that it moderates alimentary fermentation, and is powerfully sedative. Its action on the nervous system probably depends on the oil it contains; which receives its flavour, and is rendered mildly empyreumatic, by the process of roasting. Neumann obtained by distillation from one pound of coffee, five ounces five drachms and a half of water, six ounces and half a drachm of thick fetid oil, and four ounces and two drachms of caput mortuum. And it is well known, that rye, torrefied with a few almonds, which furnish the necessary proportion of oil, is now frequently employed as a substitute for these berries.

"The medicinal qualities of coffee seem to be derived from the grateful sensation which it produces in the stomach, and from the sedative powers it exerts on the vis viva. Hence it assists digestion, and relieves the headache; and is taken in large quantities, with peculiar propriety by the Turks and Arabians, because it counteracts the narcotic effects of opium, to the use of which those nations are much addicted.

"In delicate habits, it often occasions watchfulness, tremors, and many of those complaints which are denominated nervous. It has been even suspected of producing palsies; and from my own observation, I should apprehend, not entirely without foundation. Slare affirms, that he became paralytic by the too liberal use of coffee, and that this disorder was removed by abstinence from that liquor.

"The following curious and important observation is extracted from a letter with which I was honoured by Sir John Pringle, in April 1773: 'On reading your section concerning coffee, one quality occurred to me which I had observed of that liquor, confirming what you have said of its sedative virtues. It is the best abater of the paroxysms of the periodic asthma that I have seen. The coffee ought to be of the best Mocco, newly burnt, and made very strong immediately after grinding it. I have commonly ordered an ounce for one dish; which is to be repeated fresh after the interval of a quarter or half an hour; and which I direct to be taken without milk or sugar. The medicine in general is mentioned by Musgrave, in his treatise De arthritide anomala; but I first heard of it from a physician in this place, who having once practised in Litchfield, had been informed by the old people of that place, that Sir John Floyer, during the latter years of his life, kept free from, or at least lived easy under, his asthma, from the use of very strong coffee. This discovery, it seems, he made after the publication of his book upon that disease. Since the receipt of that letter, I have frequently directed coffee in the asthma with great success.'"