3r>8 J Assembly 



Mr. Meigs read the followiug translations by him : 



[Revue Horticole, Paris, 1850.] 



French Tea. — These words sound well ! Would not one he led 

 to believe that France was going to rival China in the production 

 of that beverage so dear to the children of England \ At least, 

 if we are to believe M. Lecoq, (of Paris) this might happen, and 

 that if it don't it is our own fault. As a proof of this, he exhibit- 

 ed, at the last Horticultural Fair, two kinds of tea of his own rais- 

 ing and prepared by his own hands ; he calls them Souchong and 

 Penrl Green Tea. M. Lecoq, who is devoted to the tea industry, 

 with which he wishes to endow France, whether she will or no., 

 assures us that he has now imitated all the various qualities of 

 the Chinese tea, and that they will bear competition with those 

 of the Celestial Empire. Very good ! We shall see ! The 

 hono:feble and industrious gentleman is agoing to the Grand Ex- 

 hibitionof 1851,in London, to make his tea figure there. Perhaps 

 our neighbors may ask him to give them a taste of his tea ; and 

 they are pretty good connoisseurs, and we can hardly teach them 

 anytliing on the subject of lea tastes. 



From Dr. Royle's report on cuhure of tea in I:idia, translated 

 by Mr. Meigs : 



In the beginning of 1827 I spoke to Lord Amherst, then Gover- 

 nor General of India, of the probability of the success of the cul- 

 ture of tea in the mountains of the Himalaya, and I made it the 

 subject of a special report wliich was presented to the Govern- 

 ment of India that year. In that report I remarked, that the tea 

 plant is far from being so delicate and so limited in its geographi- 

 cal distribution as was generally supposed. Tliat, indeed, it 

 seems to attain its highest degree of perfection in the mild climate 

 of Nankin, but flourishes in the higher latitutes of Pekin and 

 in Japan. When Lord Bentinck visited the botanic garden of 

 Saharunpore, in 1831, 1 did not fail to speak to him of the cul- 

 ture of teas, as presenting for India a new source of prosperity. 

 1 was not alone in the opinion that it could be readily acclimated 

 in India. This idea had been long ago given by Sir Joseph Banks, 

 but I did not know it — that it would succeed in the Himalaya 

 mountains. And I)r. Wallich, in 1832, pres'^nted to the House 



