are indigenous/ But Mr. Walker's idea was not 

 original. Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Govan had, 

 long before him, recommended the experiment being 

 made in the Himalayas, and Dr. Forbes Royle, in 

 1827, had introduced the subject to the notice of 

 Lord Ahmerst, who preceded Lord William Benlinck 

 as Governor General of India, and subsequently 

 reported strongly in favor of it. Lord Ahmerst, 

 however, took no action whatever in the matter ; 

 and the Directors of the East India Company 

 do not seem to have taken any official notice 

 of Mr. Walker's memorandum, which might have 

 lain in their archives, food for moths, had not 

 the great statesman before mentioned come to- 

 India, and on the 24th January 1834 addressed 

 his Council in these words. { It is not necessary 

 that I should trouble the Council with many 

 remarks to support the abstract question of the 

 great advantage which India would derive from the 

 successful introduction of the tea plant ; and the 

 only points for consideration are whether there 

 are not reasonable grounds for the conclusion, that 

 there must be, in all the varieties of climate and 

 soil, between the Himalayas and Cape Comorin, 

 combinations of both, that must be congenial to 

 this particular plant ; and next, how far it may 

 be practicable to have from China cuttings of the 

 true and best descriptions of the plant, and know- 

 ledge and skill for its cultivation, and for the 



