30 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



provinces being also of a very inferior quality. It is 

 grown in Cochin-China and the mountain ranges of Ava, 

 but only for local consumption, and that, while it is indige- 

 nous to the mountains, separating China from Burmah, 

 it is not cultivated there for either export or profit, and 

 although claimed by some authorities to be grown all over 

 the Chinese empire, its cultivation for commercial pur- 

 poses is confined to the region lying between the 24th and 

 35th degrees of north latitude, the climate between these 

 parallels varying to a considerable extent, being much 

 warmer in the southern than in the northern provinces. 

 The districts in which it is chiefly cultivated, however, 

 and from which it is principally exported, are embraced 

 in the southwestern provinces of Che-kiang, Fo-kien, 

 Kiang-see, Kiang-nan, Gan-hwuy Kwang-tung, some little 

 being also produced for export in the western province 

 of Sze-chuan. 



It is cultivated for commercial purposes all over the 

 Japanese islands, from Kiu-siu, in the south, to Niphon, 

 in the extreme north, but the zone found most favorable 

 to its most profitable production in these islands is that 

 lying between the 3Oth and 35th degrees, more especially 

 in the coast provinces of the interior sea. It is also 

 grown to some extent in Corea, from which country 

 although claimed by some to be the original country of 

 tea none is ever exported. 



In the year 1826 some tea seeds were sent from Japan 

 to Java and planted as an experiment in the residency of 

 Buitzenorg, where they were found to succeed so well 

 that tea-culture was immediately commenced on an 

 extensive scale in the adjoining residencies of Cheribon, 

 Preanger and Krawang, the number of tea trees in the 

 former district amounting to over 50,000 in 1833. The 

 several other districts of the island to which it had been 



