204 TEA-POTS USED. 



work. The poorer people use plain brass or tinned 

 copper tea-pots. Each man carries his own cup 

 about his person either of China porcelain, or, 

 which is more common, made of the knot of the 

 horse-chestnut, edged or lined with silver, or plain. 

 About 5000 of these, in the rough, are annually 

 exported from Bisahar to Gardokh, and sold at the 

 rate of six for a rupee ; they are finished and orna- 

 mented in China.* 



Moorcroft speaks of a discovery of much interest 

 made in the course of his inquiries into the tea 

 trade of Ladakh. It appeared that a considerable 

 importation of a vegetable product used as tea, 

 took place from the British dependency of Bisahar. 

 There were two kinds, green and black. The black 

 tea, however, he was informed by two intelligent 

 natives of that province, was the product of a de- 

 ciduous tree, and, consequently, could not be the 

 true tea- tree. The green tea was the product of 

 an evergreen ; but as it seldom exceeded the height 

 of four and a half feet, I should doubt it being the 

 tea-tree. It must always be borne in mind that a 

 height of from three to five feet is the cultivated 

 and stunted height of the tea-tree, and not the na- 

 tural height of its free and unrestrained growth. 



That the tea-plant, says Moorcroft, grows more 

 extensively through the hill tracts than has hitherto 

 been imagined, is probable, from various circum- 



* Moorcroft's Travels in the Himalayan Mountains, vol. i. 

 p. 329. 



