T^HE present work is a monographic presentation of the economic-*species of the genus Coffea L. The treatment of coffee presented here is an endeavor to include the systematic, economic, and cultural discussions which are indispensable to modern economic studies. Part I is a scientific discussion of the botany of coffee. Part II is an economic discussion of coffee including production and consumption data, types, preparation, facts concerning the chemistry, and the past and present adulteration of coffee. In concluding this part, a summary is given of the other caffeine-yielding plants, their distribution and use. The cultural treatment of coffee is given in the form of two appendices presenting an ethnological and historical account of coffee and coffee-houses. The work includes eighty-four illustrations, a chronological chart for the use of coffee as a beverage throughout the countries of the world, and an extensive bibliography including economic and cultural references. Research pertaining to the economic Rubiales, in the Department of Economic Botany of Harvard University, emphasized the fact that coffee, the best known and one of the most important plants of the group, had never been adequately investigated. Although there is abundant literature in regard to the use of the beverage and the systematic position of the coffee-plant, from the Pre-Linnaean period to the present time, the genus Coffea L. has not been treated monographically on an economic basis. Hiern discussed the African species of coffee in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, series 2, i (1876) 173. K. Schumann published the results of his research on the African Rubiacese in Engler's Botanische Jahrbiicher 25 (1898) 233. Lecomte in his book "Le Cafe," which was published in 1899, described numerous species and devoted the major part of the work to a discussion of coffee culture. Valeton's paper entitled ''Die Arten der Gattungen Cojfea L., etc.," which was published in the Bulletin de L'Institut Botanique de Buitenzorg 7 (1901) i; and X PREFACE De Wildemann's work, "Les Cafeiers," which was published in 1 901, were entirely systematic studies. These publications are limited to certain geographical areas or are lacking in economic consideration. All discoverable bibliographical references have been studied carefully in connection with the macroscopic and microscopic examination of the species. Available evidence resulting from his research enabled the author to emend or amplify previous systematic descriptions and the nomenclatorial history of several species. The systematic treatment of the useful species is elaborated by a consideration of the other demands of an economic or applied botanical treatise. Thus the work enters a more original field of research than is characteristic of American methods of presentation. A section is devoted to coffee-adulteration and sophistication which involves a discussion of the past and present botanical sources of adulterants and substitutes and methods of detection, based on the microscopic, physical...
