VARIETIES OF THE TEA PLANT. 51 



otherwise the reader might be puzzled with some opinions 

 expressed which are so much at variance with the generally 

 received opinions on Tea to-day. 



Kinds of Tea plants cultivated. ' When Government resolved on 

 trying the experiment of cultivating Tea in India, they deputed Dr. 

 Gordon to China to acquire information respecting the, cultivation 

 and manufacture of Teas, and to procure Tea seeds. Aided by Dr. 

 Gutzlaff he procured a quantity of seeds from the mountains in the 

 Amoy districts. These seeds were sent to the Calcutta Botanical 

 Garden, where they were sown in boxes. On germinating they were 

 sent up the country in boats, some to Assam and some to Gurhmuk- 

 tesur, and from thence to Kumaon and Gurhwal. From these plants 

 date the commencement of the Tea plantations in the Himalayas. 1 

 Tea was first made in Kumaon in 1841, and the samples sent to 

 England, and were pronounced to be of good quality, fitted for the 

 home markets, and similar to the Oolong Souchong varieties. Thus 

 Messrs. Thompson, of Mincing Lane, report on a sample sent by us 

 to Dr. Royle in 1842: "The samples of Tea received belong to the 

 Oolong Souchong kind, fine-flavoured and strong. This is equal to 

 the superior black Tea generally sent as presents, and better for the 

 most part than the Chinese Tea imported for mercantile purposes." 2 

 By many it was supposed that there were different species of the Tea 

 plant, and that the species cultivated in the south, districts of China 

 was different from that met with in the north. To solve this mystery, 

 and at the same time procure the best varieties- of the Tea plant, 

 Mr. Fortune was deputed to China. By him large numbers of Tea 

 plants were sent from different districts of China celebrated for their 

 Teas, and are now thriving luxuriantly in all the plantations throughout 

 the Kohistan of the North-west Provinces and Punjab. Both green 

 and black Tea plants were sent, the former from Whey Chow, 

 Mooyeen, Chusan, Silver Island, and Tein Tang, near Ningpo, and 

 the latter from Woo-e San, Tein San, and Tsin Gan, in the Woo-e 

 district. But so similar are the green and black Tea plants to each 



1 And also the introduction of a bad class of plants. E. M. 



2 A single small sample of Tea very carefully made, and with an amount of 

 labour which could never be bestowed on the mass, is little or no criterion. Tea 

 is better made in Kumaon in 1878 than it was in 1842, but Kumaon Tea does 

 not vie in price with Eastern Bengal produce. All the Himalayan Tea is weak, 

 though of a delicate flavour ; all Tea grown at high elevation must be so. E. M. 



E 2 



