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introduce the tea plant at Penang and in Ceylon, 

 had failed; and that similar trials, made under 

 very similar circumstances in Java, having proved 

 c equally fruitless/ they had in consequence been 

 given up. In his first report, dated Macao 24th 

 July 1834, Mr. Gordon says; ' from the Agent to 

 the Dutch Company I learn, that they have got at 

 Java between 3,00,000 and 4,00,000 plants; 

 and that the Company is so sanguine of success 

 that they are extending the plantations vigorously. 

 Their annual supply of seed is immense ; and of 

 last year's despatch half has actually come up in 

 imrseries. The produce he asserts, is of very 

 good quality, between pekoe, and congo ; but oving 

 perhaps to the youth of their plants, they have not 

 succeeded in a perfect imitation of either pekoe or 

 congo/' And this statement as upsetting one of those 

 erroneous ideas formed from inaccurate or de fee- 

 tive information, which so helped in the outset to 

 retard the initiation of experiments in the natura- 

 lization of the tea plant, would have been valuable, 

 had not an event occured, that diverted attention 

 from Mr. Gordon and his enquiries in China, to 

 matters nearer home. This was nothing less than 

 the discovery that the tea plant was growing wild 

 at our own doors. 



One of the Tea Committee's first acts was to issue a 

 Circular with a view to collecting information as to 

 the climate and soil of various localities in India, so 





