NATURE OF THE SOIL. 61 



the leaves were principally old leaves, having 

 attained their maturity of size and growth ; and 

 yet the largest of these leaves were only about 

 the size of the young and succulent leaves of Pou- 

 chong tea, whose leaves of full growth measure five 

 inches. 



"We therefore here see the degenerating effect of 

 an arid soil. Indeed, Mr. Gordon observes that 

 " the best soil was little more than mere sand." 



If we turn to Assam, we there find the effects of 

 the opposite extreme, excess of moisture. There 

 the plant, agreeably to Mr. M'Cleland, "grows 

 under the shade of dense forests and a gloomy and 

 excessively humid atmosphere, in *a barren soil, 

 along the verge of rivers, lakes, and marshy lands*," 

 being never wholly inundated, but nearly so. 



Thus the plant, "struggling for existencef," being 

 over-excited by excessive absorption of moisture by 

 the roots, while the leaves, deprived of the stimulus 

 of direct solar light and heat, are unable to throw 

 off a proportionate quantity of fluid by perspiration 

 and evaporation, the delicate stem forces its way 

 with difficulty through the dense brushwood, and 

 rises " a tall and slender tree, varying from ten to 

 twenty feet in height, and mostly under an inch in 

 diameter, with its branches high up," and with large 



* Transactions of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society 

 of India, vol. iv. p. 35. 



f Parliamentary Papers, Tea Cultivation, Feb. 27. 1839, 

 p. 112. 



