As the beverage gained popularity, the plant itself remained scarce until the Dutch foolishly gave a coffee bush to Louis XIV. Europe's cooler climate prevented the coffee plant from thriving until it was nurtured in a greenhouse. Some even suggest that coffee was the mother of the greenhouse invention. However, coffe production did not begin to explode until French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu brought a single plant to Martinique in 1723. Within 50 years one plant had fostered 19 million more on the island.