1837.] 



the Assam Tea Plant, 



431 



that during the hot season, it is the only drink of those who can 

 afford to procure it-— that it is drank at meals by people in good 

 circumstances, and that the poor have it only at feasts, because 

 they cannot procure it at other times. He also informed us, that 

 it is by the common people of those countries with which he 

 himself is connected, the general offering made to great men on 

 visits of ceremony, when compliments are intended to be paid. 

 It is cultivated, he says, in gardens; and plantations are reserved 

 for the purpose of procuring it, and that the expense is equal to about 

 one anna for two pounds weight. When preparing it for use this 

 quantity is placed at once in a large vessel from which individuals of 

 the party help themselves. 



He farther assured us, that the tea thus universally used, is identi- 

 cally the same as the wild plant now growing in Assam, and that it is 

 prepared by all the nations east of Suddya, with which he is acquaint- 

 ed, just in the way that it is now prepared by the Singphos, whom it 

 was then supposed we were about to visit. 



He said it was cultivated in gardens and plantations for convenience, 

 and for the purpose of keeping up a sufficient supply, rather than from 

 an idea of improving its quality beyond that of the wild tea plant. In 

 their plantations, he informed us, they did not interfere with the growth 

 of the tree, farther than by depriving it of the leaves for which it is 

 cultivated. It consequently attains such a size as to oblige those who 

 collect the leaves to climb upon the branches. 



This is the substance of the information we derived from a person of 

 weight, and some political influence at Suddya ; but whether it is of 

 much value in the elucidation of the question of the cultivation and 

 manufacture of the Assam tea plant, I shall not at present venture an 

 opinion : but this information, and certain physical indications regard- 

 ing the direction from whence the plant originally approached the 

 valley, are mutually in confirmation of each other. Thus we have 

 still an extreme eastern depot of plants at Namroop, the source of the 

 Bora Dihing river. From this, Nigroo may have been directly sup- 

 plied ; but Cuju, as it presents the largest plants, I suspect to be the 

 oldest colony of which we have any description, in the valley ; and 

 situated at the source of the Debru river, it is certainly the parent of 

 all those colonies which have been discovered along the banks of that 

 stream. 



