60"                     TRAVELS   IN   TRINIDAD.             Let. 4.f
times longer than tho cup : the limb is plane, being
longer than the tube, and divided into five segments of
a lanceolated figure, with their edges bent backwards ;
the fruit is a round berry, with an umbilicated point ;
the seeds are two, of an ellipticc-hemispheric figure,
gibbose on one side, plane on the other, and wrapped
up in a membrane. This beautiful evergreen is a native
of Arabia Felix ; it generally rises to the height of seven
or eight feet, and sometimes twelve, with a trunk from
twelve to seventeen or eighteen inches in circumference;
it is covered with a grey smooth bark, and shoots out,
through the whole length of the stem, a growth of
branches, which are always opposite to each other;
the leaves resemble those of the bay-tree, and are
ranged in the same manner ; from the bottom of these
spring fragrant white flowers, very nearly resembling
those of the jessamine, of which some esteem the
coffee-shrub a species ; when the flowers fall they leave
a small fruit behind, green at first, but reddens as it
ripens, and not unlike a hard cherry both in shape and
colour ; from two to five of these bénies grow together
on the same part of the twig, each covered with a tegu-
ment or husk, enclosed in another tegument which
contains two seeds Or kernels called coffee. In the
month of May the fruit is gathered by shaking the
tree, the fruit falling on cloths spread underneath
to receive it ; it is then laid on mats to dry in the sun,
and the outer tegument is crushed by drawing rollers
of wood or iron over them, after which the berries are
exposed a second time to the sun, and sifted clean for
use or sale. The outer teguments are not wasted, for
the slaves wash them and make a drink of them, which
has a little tartness, and is esteemed pleasing as well as
cooling.