GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 33 



the only success reported being from the latter country, 

 where the soil is good and moisture equable. Tea 

 plantations have also been lately opened up in Malay, 

 Singapore, and other of the Straits settlements by the 

 English ; some teas of fair quality, but insufficient quan- 

 tity, having already produced in many of them. Its 

 cultivation forms one of the industries of the Fiji islands 

 at the present time ; the soil and climate of the latter 

 being found eminently adapted to its successful propaga- 

 tion, land and labor, the chief difficulties in other 

 countries, being particularly available there. Extra- 

 ordinary efforts are now also being made to introduce the 

 plant into the warmer parts of Australia. 



Some ten years ago specimens of the Chinese tea- 

 plant were introduced into the Azores, where they soon 

 became acclimated, expert Chinese tea-makers being sent 

 there specially a few years later to teach the natives how 

 to manipulate the leaves. The industry has made such 

 rapid progress there that regular shipments of " Madeira 

 tea " are now being made to the London market, where 

 it is affirmed that in strength and flavor it closely ap- 

 proaches that of China tea. But while it has been found 

 to flourish luxuriantly on the hilly parts of St. Helena, 

 the quantity and quality are insufficient to justify its cul- 

 tivation for either profit or export on that island. 



The Economic Society of St. Petersburg warmly 

 advocates its cultivation in the Caucasus, while French 

 and German naturalists declare that there is no region 

 more suitable for the profitable cultivation of tea than the 

 shores of the Black Sea, the climate being warm, moist 

 and equable, and tea of more than average quality have 

 already been produced between Batoum and Kiel, 

 samples of which were exhibited at the exhibition 

 recently held in Tiflis, the report on which was so 



