Coffee-plants are able to bear an amount of cold which is little known or thought of. The high and cold regions of Jamaica near St. Catherine’s Peak, and the foot of the Great Blue Mountain Peak, both situated at some 6000 feet above the level of the sea; and, again, the mountains of Arabia, the Neilgherries, and Ceylon, furnish instances of the great degree of cold that the coffee-plant will endure. More than this, it is an established fact that it bears a larger, plumper, and far more aromatic berry at these altitudes than in a lower situation and in a warmer temperature. The coffee produced on plantations near the foot of the Blue Mountain Peak, in Jamaica, is the finest in the world. In Arabia, likewise, the cold at night is sometimes intense; yet who will dispute the goodness of Mocha coffee? Nothing can exceed the beauty of the rows or walks planted with coffee-trees, from their pyramidical shape and glossy dark leaves, amongst which are hanging the ripe, scarlet-coloured berries. A writer, in his “Impressions of the West Indies,” thus speaks: “Anything in the way of cultivation more beautiful or more fragrant than a coffee-plantation I had not conceived, and oft did I say to myself that if ever I became, from health or otherwise, a cultivator of the soil within the tropics, I would cultivate the coffee-plant, even though I did so irrespective altogether of the profit that might be derived from so doing. Much has been written, and not without justice, of the rich fragrance of an orange-grove, and at home we ofttimes hear of the sweet odours of a bean-field. I have, too, often enjoyed, in the Carse of Stirling and elsewhere in Scotland, the balmy breezes as they swept over the latter, particularly when the sun had burst out with unusual strength after a shower of rain. I have likewise in Martinique, Santa Cruz, Jamaica, and Cuba, inhaled the breezes wafted from the orangeries, but not for a moment would I compare either with the exquisite aromatic odours from a coffee-plantation in full bloom, when the hill-side--covered over with regular rows of the shrubs, with their millions of jasmine-like flowers--showers down upon you as you ride up between the plants a perfume [Illustration: Plate 2.--A Coffee Plantation in Jamaica.] of the most delicately delicious description. ’Tis worth going to the West Indies to see the sight and inhale the perfume.” Plate 2 represents a coffee plantation in Jamaica. In the culture of the tree there is a singular difference in the western and eastern hemispheres, inasmuch as in the former shade is considered injurious, whilst in the latter it is held to be desirable, if not absolutely necessary. SECTION II. HISTORY OF ITS INTRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION.