e 
he 
7 
ids: 
=m 
Sag aa — os : ** 
. : Bibliography. = 
‘ &.2 a a ” : acai a * ss 5 ? 
" © Arr, XX.— Bibliographical Notices. = a 
5 ta: 
: tt ; Ff » * _. 
», 1. Report on the Tea Plant of Upper Assam; by Wm. Grirriru, 
. Assistant Surgeon Madras Establishment, late member of the Assam ~~ 
Deputation.* (From the Transactions of the Agricultural Societ “ 
of Calcutta,) pp. 85, 8vo. With two plates and four maps or charts.— _ 
The important discovery that the genuine tea-plant is indigenous to 
Upper Assam, which was made in the year 1834, excited, as might be 
expected, a high degree of interest; and the East India Company, who 
were already attempting the cultivation of the tea in their possessions, 
by its introduction from China, appointed a deputation to examine the 
country in which the plant had been discovered. The officers se- 
lected for this duty were Dr. Wallich and Mr. Griffith as botanists, 
and Mr. McClelland as geologist, who set out upon their mission in 
the autumn of 1835. The pamphlet before us is said to be a second 
or revised report: we cannot determine the date of its publication, 
and we have not seen the volume of the Transactions of the Agricul- 
tural Society of Calcutta, of which it is said to form a part, but it 
probably appeared as early as the year 1838. Owing to the present 
relations of China with England, the subject of which it treats never 
possessed so great an importance as at the present time, unless in- 
deed (as is not very improbable) the future experiments of the East 
India Company in the cultivation of the tea-plant are to be prosecuted 
on Chinese soil ! 
The teport contains a good deal of merely local or personal mat- 
ter, and is so extensive that we can give nothing like an analysis of 
its contents. The first part is occupied with the Movements of the 
Deputation, enumeration of the tea localities, and the appearance 
of the Tea-plants. ‘The plant, it appears, occurs in patches of very 
limited extent, but the localities are said to be numerous. It is a 
Shrub of ordinary size, or rarely reaching the altitude of a small tree, 
growing in low situations, in a very light and porous soil, which is al- 
ways yellowish or reddish-yellow; and the climate is remarkable for 
its humidity. The second part consists of Remarks on the Vegeta- 
tion associated with the Tea-plant in Assam andin China. The third 
18 a Comparison between the Flora of Upper Assam and that of Chi- 
nd, in somewhat similar latitudes ; a subject of great difficulty, owing 
to the slight knowledge we possess of the vegetation of China, but 
which is very ably investigated by Mr. Griffith, especially as to the 
indications which the presence or predominance of particular tribes or 
NS ae ee ee ee ea 
* Received from the author. 
