62 NATURE OF THE SOIL. 



delicate leaves from four to nine inches long. So 

 that these slender trees, as remarked by Mr. Bruce, 

 when deprived of their support from the surround- 

 ing jungle, — which in some instances had been cut 

 down, — seemed scarcely capable of sustaining their 

 own weight. * 



We here see examples of the two extremes of 

 dryness and moisture ; but it must be acknowledged, 

 that the plant seems to bear extreme moisture 

 better than excessive dryness ; and it has already 

 been remarked that tea is never found growing in 

 arid places. 



Pursuing this investigation, and bearing in mind 

 the principle that the tea plant delights in a fertile 

 soil, retentive of moisture, but of easy filtration, 

 we may, perhaps, be enabled to reconcile some of 

 the apparent discrepancies on this subject. 



In the first place, "a vegetable mould mixed 

 with sand, light and loose " (p. 46. § 1.), on plains 

 where the drainage is imperfect, or on the gentle 

 slopes and levels of hills, where it is slow, may 

 be a soil of a very suitable character. Indepen- 

 dently of the nutritive quality of such a soil, it 

 obviously affords easy filtration, the genial admis- 

 sion of air and heat to the roots, and free evapora- 

 tion. It will also be seen under the article " Green 



* Parliamentary Papers, Tea Cultivation, p. 113. One of 

 the largest trees Mr. Bruce found to be two cubits in circum- 

 ference, and full forty cubits in height ; but he supposed that 

 few attained that size. (lb. p. 112.) 



