from the Kingdom of Nepal. 413 



drow alone will be found up to about that elevation, when in a 

 few hundred feet it yields to P. Webbiana, Owing to this lofty 

 habitat, P. Webbiana is stimulated into premature growth by 

 our early springs, and often cut down by subsequent frosts; 

 the Pindrow, though from a lower zone, is not liable to this 

 accident. 



The preparation of a kind of tea from the Yew-tree is, I think, 

 peculiar to the Himalaya, and it is remarkable that so dangerous 

 a plant should have been selected. Col. Markham (Shooting 

 in the Himalaya, p. 115) thus describes its use in Kashmir: 

 '^ There is a capital substitute for tea, in the inner bark of the 

 Yew-tree, dried and prepared like tea. The colour is perfect ; 

 but I never could find much taste in the infusion, although one 

 of my friends once said that he liked it better than tea.^' It is 

 for this reason that, in Kunawar, Taocus baccata is called Sang- 

 cha=Sang tea, perhaps connected with the name of the moun- 

 tain Sung-lo in Kiangnan, "famous in China as being the place 

 where the green tea shrub was first discovered, and where green 

 tea was first manufactured*." 



Of the popular idea of the great age attained by this tree, I 

 met with a curious illustration in 1851, when an Irish gardener 

 repeated the following as being an ancient composition taught 

 him by old people. Three years being the age assigned to the 

 unit, the total comes to 2187 : — 



Tri saoghail muic, saoghal con ; 



Tri saoghail con, saoghal eich ; 



Tri saoghail eich, saoghal auf hir ; 



Tri saoghail auf hir, saoghal seade; 



Tri saoghail seade, saoghal iolair; 



Tri saoghail iolair, saoghal au iur. 



In English, 



Three lives of a pig = life of a dog ; 



Three lives of a dog = life of a horse ; 



Three lives of a horse = life of a man ; 



Three lives of a man = life of a path (or furrow) ; 



Three lives of a path = life of an eagle ; 



Three lives of an eagle = life of a yew. 



[To be continued.] 



Fortune's Tea Countries of China, 86. 



