D REPORT OF M. GUILLEMIN. 



Such is the mode of preparation pursued at Rio Janeiro, 

 though I must add, that the process employed at the Botanic 

 Garden being most carefully performed, in order to serve as 

 a model for private cultivators of Tea, the produce is supe- 

 rior to the generality, so that we dare not judge of all Brazilian 

 Tea by what is raised at the Garden of Rio. I was also 

 assured, that at Saint Paul each grower had his own peculiar 

 method, influencing materially the quality of the Tea, which 

 decided me to visit that province, where I hoped to gain 

 valuable information respecting the culture and flxbrication 

 of Tea, specially considered as an article of commerce. 



In the interim, the month of December proving excessively 

 hot and rainy, so as to forbid any distant excursions, I turned 

 my attention to the important object of procuring Tea plants 

 in number and state fit for exportation, and observing that 

 almost all the shrubs I saw were far too large for this purpose, 

 I applied to M. de Brandao for his help and advice. This 

 gentleman, in the most courteous manner, offered me either 

 seeds or slips from his own Tea shrubs. The striking of the 

 latter was, lie owned, a hazardous and uncertain affiiir, though 

 it had the probable advantage of securing a finer kind of 

 plant than could with certainty be raised from seed. I, 

 however, began by asking him for newly gathered seeds, in 

 order to sow them in my little nursery garden at Santa The- 

 resa, and he obligingly gave me a thousand of the seeds, 

 perfectly ripe and sound, which is easily known by the pur- 

 plish-brown colour of their integument. M. Houlet imme- 

 diately set about preparing the soil in which to plant these 

 seeds, and the earth being excessively argillaceous and hard, 

 much digging, manuring, and dressing were needful ; in a 

 word, we neglected no precautions which could contribute to 

 the growth of our seeds. In the interim I allowed not a 

 single dry day to elapse without visiting the country houses 

 near Rio, in all of which I saw somethintr more or less inter- 

 estmg, either in the culture of Tea, or other vegetable pro- 

 ductions of commercial value. When investiaatinf the 

 magnificent virgin forests, which afford their finest ornaments 

 to our hothouses, and whence I brought home manv charmin'i 



