104 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



pay to cultivate it on a large scale " it appears to be also 

 as intolerant of too warm a climate as of too cold a one ; 

 for though "tea -growing is met with in Tonquin and 

 Cochin China, it is not very extensive, and the product is 

 not good. It is grown indeed over a wide zone, from 15 

 to 40 north latitude " but the profitable cultivation is re- 

 stricted between 23 and 31 in China, and between 30 

 and 35 in Japan. 



The Tea-shrub is however not indigenous in Japan ; for, 

 as we also learn from Schouw, Japanese history mentions 

 its introduction there by Chinese bonzes, apparently as long 

 ago as the ninth century A.D. ; its only native home is in 

 China, " and, according to recent discoveries, in Assam, on 

 the borders of China." 



In spite of Japanese exclusiveness, and at all risk of the 

 cruelties they sometimes condescend to practise upon ordi- 

 nary mortals who find their way there, we mean to see 

 what we can of the general character of vegetation in this 

 wonderful country, which seems by nature calculated to live 

 apart from, and independent of, other nations; with its 

 dangerous seas, which make its shores so difficult of access, 

 and its ample internal resources ; its varied climate, yielding, 

 from the northern to the southern limit of the empire, both 



