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JOUKNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Difficulties having arisen, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 with China, the British Government appears to have realised the danger of 

 having no source of tea — even then becoming a necessity of life — than the 

 Chinese supply. Animated discussions were, moreover, at that time taking 

 place in England, which ultimately culminated in the overthrow of the East 

 India Company's monopoly in tea. The British Government accordingly 

 encouraged the Company to endeavour to establish tea plantations in India. 

 In consequence tea seeds were prociured from Canton in 1780, and planted by 

 Colonel Kyd in a small garden near Calcutta which ultimately became the 

 Eoj-al Botanic Gardens. Kyd wrote to Sir Joseph Banks to secure his 

 co-operation, and Sir Joseph, in 1788 — as Director of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew — recommended Warren Hastings to seriously attempt the 

 cultivation of tea in Behar, Rungpur, or Kuch Behar. Interest was thus 

 aroused in the subject, and somewhere between 1819 and 1824 Major Bruce 

 and also Mr. David Scott, the first Commissioner of Assam, discovered wild tea 

 in that province. This interested Dr. Buchanan Hamilton very greatly, but 

 so little attention was paid to the matter officially that the correspondence does 

 not appear to have been preserved, and it cannot now be definitely ascertained 

 which of these two discoverers should have the honour of priority. I have not 

 been able to trace a botanical specimen, preserved in any herbarium, that could 

 be identified as the Bruce- Scott plant. There seems to be no room for doubt, 

 therefore, that specimens were sent to Mr. Kyd (son of Colonel Kj'd) for the 

 purpose of being compared with his Chinese plants, and that these corresponded 

 with the Assam indigenous plant as known to us at the present day. 



Before Lord William Bentinck left England to assume the duties of 

 Governor-General of India, he was interviewed on the subject of his giving the 

 question of tea cultivation his warm support. He lost no time in complying, 

 and appointed a committee wdth Dr. N. Walhch (by that time Superintendent 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, as its secretary) to report on the 

 measures necessary, and the most hopeful localities for experimental cultivation. 

 A resolution of the Government of India dated January 24, 1834, embodies the 

 conclusions that had been arrived at. This was given to the English public in 

 the form of a parliamentary paper, and is thus the first official notification of 

 the now famous Indian tea industry. 



Mr. G. J. Gordon, of the firm of Messrs. Mackintosh & Co., of Calcutta, 

 had been despatched to China to procure seed, to collect information, and to 

 bring to India expert Chinese tea cultivators. In 1834 plants raised at the 

 Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, from seed procured by Gordon were ready for 

 transplantation, and were handed over to Falconer to be personally conveyed to 

 Kumaon. In 1835 a small plantation was, however, also started at Luckimpore, 

 in Assam. 



Shortly after Gordon's departure for China, Jenkins, and subsequently 

 Charlton, rediscovered the tea plant in Assam. This led to an acrimonious 

 controversy. Wallich refused to believe that it was the true tea plant, 

 and accordingly Jenkins had a sample of tea made from the wild plant 

 and sent that to Calcutta in support of his discovery. He does not mention 

 how it was that he came to be able to prepare tea, but Mr. Bruce a little 

 later, " Account of the Manufacture of Black Tea in Assam " (1838), says 

 "the Singhfos have known and drunk tea for many years." To their 

 ancestors very possibly may have been due the introduction of the plant 

 into the valley of Assam. The fact of tea being actually made, from a 

 presumed indigenous stock, seems to have proved a convincing argument 

 that the tea plant did actually exist in Assam. Gordon was recalled from 



