— 204 — 



which came near to bankruptcy through ignorance of the requirements of 

 tea CLiltivation; just in time they got acqiiainted witii an expérimental 

 garden, planled with China tea by colonel Hannay who had been able to 

 avoid the mistakes committed by the Assam Company. Thus, step by step, 

 tea culture in Assam proceeded towards an undreamed of prosperity. This 

 history, however, lies beyond the scope of the présent paper. 



In later years tea has repeatedly been discovered growing wild. \n 

 1855 it was found in Cachar '), also in Southern Syihet, viz, in the 

 Chandkhani hills '), on the frontier of Syihet and Tipperah. In the Jaintia 

 and Kossia (Khasia) hills, N. Syihet, tea has been found too. in 1882, 

 Watt saw tea plants in N. E. Manipur, near the Sarameti peak, and in 

 1895 the Naga hills were studied to inquire whether the pests and blights 

 of cultivated tea occurred in the wild stock likewise (ihe results hâve not 

 been published apart, which is much to be regretted, but they hâve been 

 inserted in the important book of G. Watt (1898), ,,The pests and blights 

 of the tea plant"). The more récent thèse discoveries are, however, the 

 more it is to be doubted whether they relate to gemiine wild plants, for 

 when it became known how lucrative tea growing was, of course every- 

 where it was tried; and as the finding of wild tea was then regarded 

 only as an indication where to cultivate it with a good chance of success, 

 and not witli the hope of finding new varieties ^). it is scarcely possible 



') See the reports of capt. Verner (1855) and F. A. Glover (1855). The first author 

 writes (p. 202) that the plant grows on low hill ranges, 10—20 miles from the town 

 Syihet; ,,in one place, ,,Burrahangun", there are sonie fifteen to twenty acres of 

 land covered with the plant, there are a nuniber of large trees ...."; and further 

 (p. 203): „l am not of opinion that the Cachar and Assam plant are of the same 

 „variety. The Cachar leaves, when dried, are much lighter than the Assam, 

 „they are also I believe thinner." — One half year later, Glover suppléments this 

 report by the information that tea has been found at several spots. „The „habitat" 

 „of the tea plant is at présent hiostly confined to the hilly parts of the district 

 „bordering on Cachar, Chandkhanee, Chergola, and Unbeen, in Pergunnah Egara- 



„chattee, are ail within 20 miles of the place where the tea plant was first 



«discovered in Cachar. Several thousand plants hâve been found in the Ruffenuger 



„and Chapghat Pergunnahs Besides thèse places the plant has been found 



„growing on the numerous teelas (small detached hills, varying in height from 50 

 „to 400 feet), which surround the mouzah of Sowtah." (The tea patches in Perg. 

 Punchk., Chapg. and Ruff. are situated near the rivers Soorma and Baglia.) — See 

 further Beng. Govt. Sel. XXV, 45 (cited after Watt 1889, p. 82).- A. Kiefer (1902, 

 p. 10) mentions a letter of Mr. Larkins to the Secretary of Bengal in ludical (?) 

 Department, with the foUowing description of the tea plant discovered in Syihet by 

 Mohamed Warish (1856): „A tall tree, attaining a height of 9, 12 and 15 meters, 

 that sometimes has such a circumference that it cannot be clasped with one arm. 

 Therefore, when searching for it, one ought to look out for a tree and not for a 

 bush." .'Xccording to the same author, Mr. WlSE was the discoyerer of the tea plant 

 in Hill Tipperah as early as 1839, which this gentlemen proved by showing its leaves. 



2) Since any différence between two tea plants was looked upon as an effect of 

 external conditions, so that ail distinguishable forms were but shades of essentially 

 the same thing, no attention was paid to such différences, nor was it judged 

 necessary to keep the several local varieties isolated, which of course we would 

 do nowadays. 



