FOR VICTORIAN INDUSTRIAL CULTURE. 



239 



as the Yine and earlier than the Olive. Its culture is 

 surrounded with no difficulties, and it is singularly exempt 

 from diseases, if planted in proper localities. Pruning is 

 effected in the cool season, in order to obtain a large quantity 

 of small tender leaves from young branches. Both the 

 Chinese and Assam Tea are produced by varieties of one 

 single species, the Tea-Shrub being indigenous in the forest- 

 country of Assam. Declivities are best adapted and usually 

 chosen for Tea-culture, particularly for Congo, Pekoe and 

 Souchong, while Bohea is often grown in flat countries. For 

 many full details Fortune's work, " The Tea-Districts of 

 China," might be consulted. The very troublesome Tea-bug 

 of Asia is Helopeltis theivora. Fumigation and the appli- 

 cation of bii'dlime are among the remedies to cope with this 

 insect. The third volume of the Agricultural and Horticul- 

 tural Society of India is mainly occupied by Lieut. -Colonel 

 Edw. Money's and Mr. Watson's elaborate essays on the 

 cultivation and manufactiu-e of Tea in India, For full advice 

 on and cultui-e preparation consult the writer's printed lecture, 

 delivered in 1875 at the Farmers' Club of Ballarat. 

 The Tea of commerce consists of the young leaves, heated, 

 curled and sweated. The process of preparing the leaves can 

 be effected by steam machinery ; a machine of particular con- 

 struction has been suggested recently by Mr. Joachimi according 

 to requirements explained by the writer. In 1866 three 

 machines for di-essing Tea have been patented in England, one 

 by Messrs. Campbell and Burgess, one by Mr. Thomson and 

 one by Mr. Tayser. To give an idea of the quantity of Tea, 

 which is consumed at the present time, it may be stated, that 

 from June to September, 1871, 11,000,000 lbs. of Tea were 

 shipped from China alone to Australia, and that the produce 

 of Tea in India from January to June of this year has been 

 18,500,000 lbs. Seeds of the Tea-bush are now in many 

 parts of this colony locally to be gathered from plants 

 distributed by the writer, and for years to come the cultiva- 

 tion of the Tea-bush, merely to secure local supplies of fresh 

 seeds, ready to germinate, will in all likelihood prove highly 

 lucrative. Tea contains an alkaloid : Coffein, a peculiar 

 essential oil and Bohea-acid along with other substances. 



Theligonum cynocrambe, Linne. 



Countries around the Mediterranean Sea. An annual Spinage 

 plant of somewhat aperient effect. 



Thouarea sarmentosa, Persoon. 



Tropical shores of the eastern hemisphere. This curious 

 and tender grass might be easily introduced, to help binding 

 the sand on sea-beaches. 



