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altogether exceptional place among the tea producing 

 countries in the Far East, and we probably do not 

 anticipate too mue h if we suspect tliat hère lies 

 hidden an important cluetotheproblemoftheorigin 

 of the tea plant. It is a pity that the French, even Pierre') and 

 PiTARD^), hâve not given their full attention to this matter, and hâve allowed 

 a serions gap to exist in our knowledge of the distribution of iy//ti tea varieties 

 throughout Indochina. Fortunately, quite recently the French Government, 

 stimulated by the energetic efforts of the meritorious botanist, Mr, 

 A. Chevalier, has begun to show more interest in the tea industry, 

 especially in the varietal questions connected with it; let us hope that 

 the errors committed by the British in Assam, will be avoided hère! The 

 problem whether and where genuine wiid tea grows in Indochina, to which 

 botaiiical type it belongs and under what circumstances it lives, deserves 

 a most careful investigation, as well as the ethnological side of the matter, 

 namely: how is it that in Southern China people drink tea, that in the 

 Shan States they pickle and eat it, and that in Tong-king, tribes relatives 

 and neighbours to the former, apparently do not know it at ail? 



') L. Pierre, 1887. 

 2) C.-J. PlTARD, 1910. 



