61 
plantatio on. Up to the present, pruning, with a view to increasing c» 
erop of leaves, has not been n resorted to, as the chief object has been 
obtain as large a quantity of seed as possible for the multipliention of the 
plants. No manure has been used hitherto, but when planting out the 
seedlings this year it was intended to manure the soil with timber ashes 
and refuse from oil mills. 
During the dry season, May and June, when'the heat is very great, the 
S e ore, 
the young plants have to be protected from the sun. ‘The winter of 
1892-93 was exceptionally rigorous, the frests being as severe as six 
degrees Reaumur, but neither the grown up plants nor the seedlings 
with snow up to the very leaves. This result is particularly gratifying 
when the fact that the very Asi seedlings ure planted in a quite open 
and low-lying plain fully exposed to the wind, is taken into con- 
sideration ; when subsequently án Bat to the plantation they do very 
we 
The plantation covers about five acres, and as planting has been 
carried on as seed has become available, it contains plants of all sizes, 
ranging from five years’ growth to one and a half years’ growth. 
ts 
planted out during the present year, there suficient quantity of | 
seed in stock to raise 40,000 more VAR. ae the quality of the tea 
is said to be goo 
It is also reported that about 43,000 acres of Government Jand in the 
lan- 
tations, and in connexion with this, the above Department has ordered 
a Commission, which will seite Inspect 
the einem Sa of this year, to In Sikia 
ina, and Ceylon, with ihe objet of thoroughly studying the methods 
of tea culture in those countries 
a Be 
Saas a DN ARCTOSTAPHYLOS AS A TEA 
UBSTITUTE. 
- With regard to the use of Vaccinium Arctostaphylos as a tea substitute 
in the — referred to in the prec Spam article, the following note 
contributed by the Director to the Pharmaceutical e Her jagi arch 
21, 1885, is reproduced, to Bus the ity of the Lus 
Mr. Holmes's note in the Pharmaceutical bats com m 
pp. 573-4) pretty well exhausts the history of this curious produc 
But it will be convenient to record in the same pages the few other fhets 
that have come under our. notice at Kew. 
[n 1877, Mr. George Maw, F.L.S., brought from Asia Minor a small 
sample of tea obtained at Broussa in vg Mr. Maw informed us 
Het it was sold for about 8d. per pound, and he ascertained that it was 
made from Vaccinium Arctostaphylos (see * Kew Report,” 1877, p. 45). 
Mr. Holmes mentions on the authority o of Mr. Allen, that in Lazis 
and Trebizond it was first made in 1877; but in that year, at any rate 
in Anatolia, its use seems to haye been sufficiently. common to attract 
Mr. Maw’s attention. 
