Thea.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 125 
be far from the truth. Mussooree (v. p. 16, and Geol. Section, Pl. 1. fig. 2) has a range 
of the thermometer from 27° to 80°, and Deyra (v. p. 13) in the valley at its foot, one 
from 101° to 37° ; on the slope intervening between them, Jurreepanee elevated 5,000 
feet, is a particularly eligible situation; but experiments on a small scale might be made 
at all three stations ; and at the same time be carried on in Kemaon, at Almorah, 
and Hawulbagh, as well as in the neighbourhood of the lake, called Bheemtal 
(v. p. xviil.); and in Sirmore, near Nahn, as well as at Sabathoo; and in a warmer 
situation in the garden of Shalimar, in the Pinjore valley. Keeping in mind that Thea 
viridis, or the green-tea plant in China, as in Europe, is able to bear the greater degree 
of cold, while Thea bohea will succeed only in sheltered situations, as it is only produced 
in the southern provinces of China, and cannot bear exposure in England. 
But as temperature is not the only thing desirable, we shall find that the course 
also of the seasons is favourable, and that even the strong contrasts of a Chinese 
climate may be met with, and taken advantage of, if desired. For although the tops of 
peaks and ranges, from the equalizing effects of the atmosphere, have a small annual 
range of the thermometer, yet the cleared and elevated vallies within these mountains, 
(very different from the low, moist, and forest-covered flats at the plainward base) have — 
a great contrast of temperature between summer and winter. Because during the 
short days of the latter, owing to their obliquity, few of the sun’s rays reach the 
sheltered valleys, while the free radiation in a clear atmosphere greatly increases the 
cold. But the nearly perpendicular rays of a summer sun, impinging on the same 
places, are greedily absorbed, and being reverberated from side to side increase the 
temperature much beyond what we should expect, either in the latitude or elevation. 
As the finest crops of tea-leaves are obtained when they are young, and as the revival 
of natute takes place at Mussooree about the month of March, there is abundance of time 
for two crops of leaves to be collected before the accession (about the middle of June) 
of the more severe rainy season. The seeds would ripen in the autumn at the same 
time as the nearly allied Camellia and Eurya of these mountains. 
Being so important and valuable a plant, it may be asked, why, if so easily trans- 
ferable, it has remained so long confined to its native country; and without consi- 
deration, it has been inferred, that it must, like the cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, cardamom 
or camphor-trees, be very peculiar in its nature, and confined in its habitat; and it has 
therefore resisted the attempts made to cultivate it in Java, Penang, and Ceylon, as 
well as at Rio Janeiro. With the cold and deserts of Tatary on the north, and the 
continual heats of the tropics on the south, it could only have spread in the zone of 
favourable temperature, but here the ocean throws a barrier on the east, and the snow- 
clad Himalayas an equally impassable one on the west. But where it was possible, 
we have seen that the tea-plants have spread in their native country over a wide extent 
of territory, and are subjected to a great diversity of climate. The attempts which have 
been made to introduce it elsewhere, so far from deterring, ought rather to encourage its 
cultivation in more congenial climates; for the experiments have proved that the 
plant 
