NOTICE OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 173 
for they have examined the subject with much attention, but 
owing to the vast extent of surface over which the tea plant 
is procured, and the remote situations of the countries in 
which it is cultivated. It is now grown with success in Java 
under the equator, and is said to be raised as far north as 
the 40° of northern latitude; it is also cultivated on the banks 
of the Rio Janeiro in 224° S. latitude. In Siam and Cochin 
China, between the 10th and 16th parallels of N. latitude, it 
is produced in considerable quantity ; while in China, judg- 
ing from the enormous quantities exported, and, the still 
greater consumed in that empire, it is clear it must oc- 
cupy most extensive tracks of the country, and be subject to 
very great varieties of climate, both as relates to temperature 
and humidity, which in my opinion, goes far to prove that it 
may be cultivated with success in almost any tropical climate, 
combining humidity with a moderate range of temperature. 
It is true we are told that unless the climate partakes more 
of the temperate than tropical character, that the tea pro- 
duced will be deficient in some of its most esteemed qualities, 
the fine aroma, &c., but these I suspect it owes rather to soil 
and skilful preparation of the leaves when gathered, than to 
the character of the climate under which they have been pro- 
duced. Peculiarities of soil in which plants are reared exert 
much influence on the qualities and products of vegetation; . 
some plants growing in a very humid or marshy soil are 
intensely acrid, the common garden celery for example, but 
which when raised on a rich dry soil, becomes mild and. 
esculent, Other plants present the opposite phenomenon, 
| hat of losing their acrid or aromatic properties when removed 
from a dry to a wetsituation. To quote examples of the effect 
of soil in modifying the qualities of vegetable products, would 
be but to waste time; as every one's experience and reading 
must have furnished him with cases in point, and that too 
under circumstances in all other respects the same. In like 
manner, there is every reason to believe that the different — 
. Qualitiesof Tea are owing, not so much to difference of climate, — 
às of soil, to the sickly or vigorous condition of the plant. : 
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