42 Discovery of the Genuine [Jan* 



IV. — Discovery of the Genuine Tea Plant in Upper Assam. 



[The following official correspondence of the Tea Committee has been obliging- 

 ly handed to us for publication. We hasten to present it to our readers in its 

 original shape rather than attempt to make an abstract of its contents, because 

 the curiosity of the public is much raised, and they will naturally wish to follow 

 the whole train of the discovery, and give the credit thereof where it is due. — Ed.] 



Letter from the Committee of Tea Culture to W. H. Macnaghten, Esq. 



Secretary to the Government of India, in the Revenue Department. 

 Sir, 



We request that you will have the goodness to submit to the Right 

 Honorable the Governor General of India in Council the enclosed copies 

 of the reports, which we have received from Captain Jenkins, dated 

 the 7th and 19th May, and from Lieut. Charlton, dated the 1 7th May; 

 also a subsequent communication from Lieut. Charlton, dated the 

 5th of last month, together with the samples of the fruit and leaves of 

 the tea plant of Upper Assam, which accompanied it, and some speci- 

 mens of the leaves previously received. 



2. It is with feelings of the highest possible satisfaction that we 

 are enabled to announce to his Lordship in Council, that the tea shrub 

 is beyond all doubt indigenous in Upper Assam, being found there 

 through an extent of country of one month's march within the Honor- 

 able Company's territories, from Sadiya and Beesa, to the Chinese fron- 

 tier province of Yunnan, where the shrub is cultivated for the sake of 

 its leaf. We have no hesitation in declaring this discovery, which is due 

 to the indefatigable researches of Capt. Jenkins and Lieut. Charlton, 

 to be by far the most important and valuable that has ever been made 

 in matters connected with the agricultural or commercial resources of 

 this empire. We are perfectly confident that the tea plant which has 

 been brought to light, will be found capable, under proper manage- 

 ment, of being cultivated with complete success for commercial purpo- 

 ses, and that consequently the object of our labors may be before long 

 fully realised. 



3. It is proper to observe, that we were not altogether unprepared 

 for this highly interesting event. We were acquainted with the fact 

 that so far back as 1826, the late ingenious Mr. David Scott, sent 

 down from Munipore specimens of the leaves of a shrub, which he 

 insisted upon was a real tea ; and it will be seen from the enclosed 

 reports from the agent to the Governor General on the north-eastern 

 frontier and his assistant, that a similar assertion was strongly urged 

 in regard to the existence of the tea in Upper Assam. Still we felt 

 ourselves bound to suspend our decision on the subject until we should 

 be in possession of the fruit of the reputed shrub, the only test which 

 ought to guide us. We knew that several species of Camellia were 

 natives of the mountains of Hindustan, and that two of these were 



