Ceylon and other neighbouring islands; that a 

 large and healthy tea tree, ten feet high, was 

 know to be flourishing at Katmandhu in Nipal ; 

 and that the subject had been brought under the 

 consideration of the Board of Control, and the 

 Court of Directors of the East India Company, ia 

 connection with our relations with China. It is 

 further true that in 1816, Mr. Gardiner, the Resi- 

 dent at the Court of Nipal, transmitted a plant 

 from thence to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta, 

 and that Dr. TVallich sent a specimen of the 

 same to Sir Joseph . Banks in London ; that in 

 1826, Mr. David Scott sent down to Calcutta from 

 Munnipoor, certain leaves of a shrub 'which he 

 insisted upon was a real tea ;' that about four 

 or five years later, Lt. Charlton, second in Command 

 of the Assam Regiment was informed that tea grew 

 wild in Assam, and actually obtained three or four 

 young plants from the neighbourhood of Beesa, 

 which were planted in the Botanical Gardens of 

 Calcutta; that Major Bruce of Jorehat, was aware 

 of the existence of the tea plant; and that his 

 brother Mr. C. Bruce subsequently brought it to 

 notice. But the efforts of none of these gentle- 

 men produced any practical result, though it is 

 but fair to mention that this was mainly attri- 

 butable, to the unwillingness of an eminent botanist, 

 to admit that the leaves of Mr. Scott, or the plants 

 of Lt, CharltoD, were tea, Nevertheless we cannot 



