accord to any the full merit of a discoverer. If a 

 man goes into a wild country, and finds growing 

 there a certain fruit which he believes to be an apple, 

 and this fruit he sends to a distant botanist who 

 pronounces it to be an apple, and this inforraatiou 

 lie publishes to the world forthwith, that man has 

 the merit of having first announced a fact perhaps 

 a new one, and possibly one of great interest and 

 value. But if a man finds that there is a similarity 

 in the configuration of two countries; that their 

 climates as regards temperature and moisture are 

 much alike; that certain plants of the one flourish 

 at the same latitudes in the other ; and conclud- 

 ing from these data that a particular and desired 

 plant of the one habitat, will grow in the other, 

 and with the view of confirming his preconcieved 

 opinions, he sets on foot enquiries on the subject ; 

 and during the course, and in the prosecution, of 

 these enquiries it is ascertained, no matter by whom, 

 that the required plant, will not only flourish in 

 the required country, but is growing wild there 

 already, that man is undoubtedly a discoverer. 

 There is a wide difference it will be admitted 

 between the two cases. Lt. Charlton who first sent 

 tea plants to Calcutta from Assam about 1830, in 

 acknowledging, in 3834, the Circular of the Tea 

 Committee states; ' From what I have seen of the 

 tea plant in different parts of the world, and 

 lately in New Holland, propagated by seeds brought 





