BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 137 



Rio Tocantines, and that they were about to come up the 

 river. The national guards have been called out, and are 

 now under drill ; a most motley group they are, of all colours, 

 all sizes, and all kinds of dresses. Tl)is place contains neither 

 arms nor ammunition, but most of the men have brought their 

 own fowling-pieces with them, and those who have none of 

 these implements, are furnished with a long knife, tied to 

 the end of a short pole. These soldiers are about one hun- 

 dred and forty in number; and, I am satisfied, that half-a- 

 dozen British military men would speedily put them all to 

 flight. 



I have just learned that Piauhy is in a state of complete 

 anarch}', and 1 grieve to hear that several of my friends have 

 fallen victims to popular fury. I would not for ten thousand 

 pounds go back the road we have just come. There can be 

 no doubt that Brazil is fast approaching to republicanism. 

 I hope to be able to write you more fully from Minas Geraes. 



Your obedient servant, 



G. Gardner. 



Report on the Tea Plantations in Assam. 



(The following are extracts from a valuable " Report on the Manufacture 

 of Tea, and on the Extent and Progress of the Tea Plantations in 

 ■^ssam, by C. A. Bruce, Superintendant of the Tea Culture." The 

 Report was published in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, 

 Sej)tember, 1839, of which it occupies thirty pages. We omit all that 

 regards the manufacture, and amount of produce expected to be obtained 

 from the plantations.) 



"In drawing out this report, it gives me much pleasure to 

 ^yj that our information and knowledge respecting Tea and 

 Tea tracts are far more extensive than when I last wrote on 

 the subject ; the number of tracts now known amounting to 

 ^20, some of them very extensive both on the hills and in 

 the plains. A sufficiency of seeds and seedlings might be 

 collected from these tracts in the course of a few years to 



Vol. III._Ko. 19. T 



