208 



Proceedings. 



[No. 9, NEW SERIES. 



India, held on the 12th Ultimo and reported at page 214, Volume 

 II, No. 44 of Calcutta Indian Field Newspaper, that the Society 

 has re-opened communication with Mr. Fortune, who has promised 

 to obtain seeds and plants in China for the Society. 



3. Although Mr. Fortune in his second and third visits to China 

 (see Ag. Hort. Soc. of India's Proceedings for 1854 and 1855) 

 sent to Calcutta many valuable plants and seeds, this part of India 

 does not seem to benefit by such acts. Of the rarer and finer tea 

 plants of undoubted value, which he introduced amongst the 

 Southern slopes of the Himalayas, I have not learned that even 

 one variety has ever been brought to our mountains, and of the 

 valuable and famed Green Dye Plant of China, a large stock of 

 which is available in the Calcutta Society's Gardens, the Madras 

 Presidency has none. 



4. I have written on the last subject to the Board of Revenue, 

 but address Government on the advantages of some Body or Board 

 opening a communication with Mr. Fortune, on behalf of this 

 Presidency. 



True Copy, 

 (Signed) T. Pycroft. 



With reference to the foregoing, the Committee regret that, as 

 all experiments upon Tea should be cultivated in a latitude very 

 different from Madras, it is entirely out of their power to conduct 

 under their own observation any investigation into the possibility 

 of propagating this useful plant. But fully recegnizing the desir- 

 ability of its introduction into Southern India, they consider that 

 the matter is well worthy of the attention of the cultivators whose 

 estates are situated on the slopes of the Neilgherries and in the 

 Wynaad. They therefore direct that copy of this letter and of 

 their proceedings to-day be despatched to the Planters' Association 

 in the Wynaad, and to such gentlemen as cultivate large tracts of 

 land in these districts. It is further resolved that, should any 

 Gentleman be anxious to make trial of the Tea plants from China, 

 this Society will be glad to assist him in procuring plants. 



As concerns the Green Dye, it is resolved, " That a letter be 

 despatched to A. H. Blechynden, Esq., Secretary of the Agri-Hor- 

 ticultural Society of India for some plants of the green dye plant 

 (Ruellia) of China for culture in these gardens. The Committee 



