The Romance of Plant Life

t and his intelligent goat-Government, coffee and cafés-Chicory-Chocolate-Aztecs-Kola and its curious effects-Tobacco-Sir Wal

ld form, when made into the beverage, a lake quite large enough to float a man-of-war! No other civilized nation

sh colonies or possessions, manufactured by Br

ade the machinery, the shipbuilders, shipowners, and crews, are all fellow-countrymen of those who drink the cup that cheers. Every sixpen

Skeen

g the D

eir baskets in the evening. These are then weig

e this, which benefits everybody, would

re always being attacked by Chancellors of the Excheq

n tea-gardens. Elsewhere in this chapter some other very curious facts will be f

m out; a nation that can manage to exist at all when such things ar

, and the first plantations in India were made with Chinese seed. But a Mr. Bruce reported the presence of an indigenous wild tea in Assam.[57] Three botanists who were sent to investigate the question sug

asket over their shoulders. When the basket is full they take it back to the factory, where their gatherings are weighed. The actual manufacture is, in India and Ceylon, all performed by machinery. The tea is first emptied on to trays in a shallow layer: a pound of tea when so spread out covers more than a square yard. These trays are then placed in a room which is heated to a high

manufacture, in which there

e tea by Chinese coolies, "celestial moisture" may be imparted to it. In spite of this, however, the export of Chinese tea is steadily diminishing. In th

part of it, and which is a bracing tonic to the nerves, tannin is also found therein. When meat is taken with a large amount of tannin, the latter acts

pious hermit. He used to live entirely on the milk of a few goats which he carefully tended with his own hands. One morning he noticed t

that it was in the habit of grazing on the bright red berries of a very handsome shrub in the hills. The anc

laration, an unusual "snap," in the good man's serm

ver, introduced into Arabia by the Sheikh Dabhani in 1470. It was taken to Constantinople about 1554, and abo

ernment discovered something objectionable in coffee, and Charles II i

f its seeds were sent to Surinam, in Dutch Guiana. Apparently the millions of shrubs in the eno

alone exports about ￡19,000,000 worth of coffee, and that from the

on the leaves of wild plants belonging to the coffee order (Rubiace?) and others. When Arabian coffee was introduced, the fungus began to att

erry. The pulp or flesh has to be removed, and also both a horny skin, the "parchment," and a thin delicate membrane, the "silverskin," in which the seed is enclosed. Coffee is not nearly so much use

absolutely necessary to grind and roast the beans just be

only the two most important impurities, for burnt sugar, biscuits, locust-beans,

with it. They contain no caffeine, which is the active part of the coffee bean, and are quite harmless.

rown in Belgium and is imported to this country. Those who prefer chicory with their coffee have to pay a heavy duty; but the Belgian farmer is allowed and the British farmer is forbidden

sed by dentists, and which deadens or stupefies the nerves of the teeth, is derived from the leaves of a Peruvian shrub, "Coca" (Erythroxylan Coca). These leaves are chewed in the mouth and have very extraordinary effects, especially on the Indian labourers. They are a strong nerve stimulus and take away any feeling of hunger or f

e is the seed of a tree (Theobroma cacao). The name is derived from θεο?, go

st entirely vanished; at any rate their descendants, if they have any, exercise practically no influence in the world, but they have le

the Land of the Sun. Columbus brought home some cocoa on his return from his first voyage. The Jesuit fathers in Mexico greatly helped in developing

l and South America. It has a large fruit, within which are the numerous cocoa beans, "nibs," or seeds. The

nderwood & Underwoo

Plantati

which is everywhere regularly employed in West Africa. On the way up to the barracks at Freetown, Sierra Leone, natives were always to be seen seated by the roadside; they sold kola nuts to the soldiers, who were thereby enabled to walk steadily and uprightly past the sentry, and to return his challenge in a clearly articulate voice,

the vegetable world possess such extraordinary virtues? it is difficult to find

af by fermentation, except a possible protection to the leaf from the attacks of i

is derived (the first) from a certain Jean Nicot, Ambassador to the

who threw a bucket of water over his master when the latter was smoking a pipe, is not supported by mu

by the year 1570, and Spenser speaks o

was prohibited by the Czar of Russia in 1635, and by the King of France. The great Sultan Jehanghir in India, Sultan Amurath II in Turk

or the "Queen Herb of the rude Barbarian" as it is described in Chinese, prevails almost o

always exceedingly bad. We ourselves import tobacco worth about ￡4,500,000 in the year, and pay a he

difficult to cultivate. There is an impression in this country that it is a tropical plant, but by far the greatest amount of our tobacco comes from temperate count

ved very encouraging, and in fact it is difficult to see how any reasonable doubt can exist as to the fact that it would be perfectly easy to grow plenty of that sort of tobacco which we now obtain from Hollan

ly on the preparation, but the Constitutional objection to tobacco, il

growing crops. Charles II imposed a penalty of ￡160

by taxing imported tobacco. If this were at all interfered with,

nce in the history of a cigar. In the Dutch island of Sumatra the jungle is cleared away by the natives under the orders of an English manager. Chinese coolies are then imported. The estate

and manufactured by the estate. Some of it goes to Indi

such as those of the dock, chicory, burdock, foxglove, comfrey, elm, col

has been quite conclusively proved that they will very probably not reach their full growth

contains "nicotine, empyreumatic resin, oil, ammonia, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide