The tree, saith _Alpinus_, is somewhat like unto the _Evonymus_ Pricketimber tree, whose leaves were thicker, harder, and greener, and always abiding greene on the tree; the fruite is called _Buna_ and is somewhat bigger then an Hazell Nut and longer, round also, and pointed at the end, furrowed also on both sides, yet on one side more conspicuous than the other, that it might be parted in two, in each side whereof lyeth a small long white kernell, flat on that side they joyne together, covered with a yellowish skinne, of an acid taste, and somewhat bitter withall and contained in a thinne shell, of a darkish ash-color; with these berries generally in _Arabia_ and _Egipt_, and in other places of the _Turkes_ Dominions, they make a decoction or drinke, which is in the stead of Wine to them, and generally sold in all their tappe houses, called by the name of _Caova_; _Paludanus_ saith _Chaova_, and _Rauwolfius_ _Chaube_. This drinke hath many good physical properties therein; for it strengthened a week stomacke, helpeth digestion, and the tumors and obstructions of the liver and spleene, being drunke fasting for some time together. In 1650, a certain Jew from Lebanon, in some accounts Jacob or Jacobs by name, in others Jobson[62], opened "at the Angel in the parish of St. Peter in the East", Oxford, the earliest English coffee house and "there it [coffee] was by some who delighted in noveltie, drank". Chocolate was also sold at this first coffee house. Authorities differ, but the confusion as to the name of the coffee-house keeper may have arisen from the fact that there were two--Jacobs, who began in 1650; and another, Cirques Jobson, a Jewish Jacobite, who followed him in 1654. The drink at once attained great favor among the students. Soon it was in such demand that about 1655 a society of young students encouraged one Arthur Tillyard, "apothecary and Royalist," to sell "coffey publickly in his house against All Soules College." It appears that a club composed of admirers of the young Charles met at Tillyard's and continued until after the Restoration. This Oxford Coffee Club was the start of the Royal Society. Jacobs removed to Old Southhampton Buildings, London, where he was in 1671. Meanwhile, the first coffee house in London had been opened by Pasqua Rosee in 1652; and, as the remainder of the story of coffee's rise and fall in England centers around the coffee houses of old London, we shall reserve it for a separate chapter. [Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH REFERENCE TO COFFEE BY SIR GEORGE SANDYS From the seventh edition of _Sandys' Travels_, London, 1673]