1835.] Memorandum of an Excursion to the Tea Hills. 103 



would purchase it with silver at any price. We therefore resolved on 

 making the most of our time by an early excursion in the morning 

 previous to setting out on our return. 



We accordingly got up at day-break, and proceeded to visit the spot 

 were the plants were cultivated. We were much struck with the variety 

 of the appearance of the plants; some pfthe shrubs scarcely rose to 

 the height of a cubit above the ground, and those were so very 

 bushy that a hand could not be thrust between the branches. They 

 were also very thickly covered with leaves, but these were very small, 

 scarcely above f- inch in length. In the same bed were other plants 

 with stems four feet in height, far less branchy and with leaves 1^ to 

 2 inches in length. The produce of great and small was said to be 

 equal. The distance from centre to centre of the plants was about A.\ 

 feet, and the plants seemed to average about twofeet in diameter. Though 

 the ground was not terraced, it was formed into beds that were partly 

 levelled. These were perfectly well dressed as in garden cultivation, 

 and each little plantation was surrounded by a low stone fence, and 

 a trench. There was no shade, but the places selected for the culti- 

 vation were generally in the bottoms of hills, where there was a good 

 deal of shelter on two sides, aiid the slope comparatively easy. I should 

 reckon the site of the highest plantations we visited to be about 700 

 feet above the plain, but those we saw at that height and even less 

 appeared more thriving, probably from having somewhat better soil, 

 though the best is little more than mere sand. I have taken speci- 

 mens from three or four gardens. Contrary to what we had been 

 told the preceding night, I found that each garden had its little nursery 

 where the plants were growing to the height of four or five inches, as 

 closely set as they could stand ; from which I conceive that the 

 tea plant requires absolutely a free soil, not wet and not clayey, but 

 of a texture that will retain moisture ; and the best site is one not so 

 low as that at which water is apt to spring from the sides of a hill, 

 nor so high as to be exposed to the violence of stormy weather. 

 There is no use in attempting to cultivate the plant on an easterly 

 exposure, though it is sufficiently hardy to bear almost any degree of 

 dry cold. 



By half-past 10 a. m. we set out on our return, in chairs which we 

 were fortunate enough to procure at this village, and reached the 

 banks of the river at Aou-ee a little before one o'clock. In the first 

 part of our way we passed by some more tea plantations on very 

 sterile ground. One in a very bleak situation, with nothing but 

 coarse red sand by way of soil, seemed to be abandoned. Our recep- 

 tion at Aou-ee was much more civil than it had been the preceding 



