IN EXTRA -TROPICAL COUNTRIES 55 



to 16 F. (Simmons). For many full details Fortune's work, 

 " The Tea Districts of China/'' might be consulted. The very 

 troublesome Tea Bug of Asia is Helopeltis theivora. Fumiga- 

 tion and the application of birdlime are among the remedies 

 to cope with this insect. The third volume of the Journal of 

 the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India is mainly 

 occupied by Lieut.-Colonel Edw. Money's and Mr. Watson's 

 elaborate essays on the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea 

 in India. For full advice on the culture and preparation of tea 

 consult the writer's printed lecture, delivered in 1875 at the 

 Farmers' Club of Ballarat. 



The tea of commerce consists of the young leaves, heated, 

 curled, and sweated. The process of preparing the leaves can 

 be effected by steam machinery ; a machine of particular con- 

 struction has been suggested recently by Mr. Joachimi accord- 

 ing to requirements explained by the writer. In 1866 three 

 machines for dressing tea have been patented in England, one 

 by Messrs. Campbell and Burgess, one by Mr. Thomson, and 

 one by Mr. Tayser. To give an idea of the quantity of tea 

 which is consumed at the present time, it may be stated that, 

 from June to September 1871, 11,000,000 Ibs. of tea were 

 shipped from China alone to Australia, and that the produce 

 of tea in India from January to June of 1872 has been 

 18,500,000 Ibs. India sent only a first small sample of tea in 

 1840 to the European market, but exported in 1877 to Eng- 

 land forty millions of Ibs., that is, as much as the whole 

 English importation thirty years ago (Burrell) . Seeds of the 

 tea bush are now in many parts of Australia locally to be 

 gathered from plants distributed by the writer, and for years 

 to come the cultivation of the tea bush, merely to secure local 

 supplies of fresh seeds, ready to germinate, will in all likelihood 

 prove highly lucrative. Tea contains an alkaloid : coffein, a 

 peculiar essential oil, and Bohea acid, along with other sub- 

 stances. 



Canavalia gladiata, Candolle.* 



Within the tropics of Asia, Africa, and America. This peren- 

 nial climber grows to an enormous height and bears an abund- 

 ant crop of edible beans (Sir Walter Elliott) with large seeds, 

 which can be used green. It varies with red and white seeds 

 and in the size of the latter, which are wholesome. C. ensi- 

 formis (Cand.) is another variety. 



Canna Achiras, Gillies. 



Mendoza. One of the few extra-tropic Cannas, eligible for 

 arrowroot culture. 



