1 66 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept,  i,  1892. 
The  motion  was  then  put  and  carried  unanimously 
The  Chairman  proposed  : “ Tnat  out  of  the  amount 
of  £21,595  4s.  7d  at  the  credit  of  profit  and  loss 
aocount,  the  payment  of  an  ad  interim  dividend  of 
5 per  cent,  on  December  10  last  by  the  directors  be 
confirmed,  that  a final  dividend  of  5 per  cent,  per 
annum,  free  of  income-tax,  be  now  declared,  payable 
on,  and  after  June  24th,  and  that  the  balance  of 
£1595  4s.  7d  bo  carried  forward  to  next  year’s 
account.” 
Mr.  John  M.  Holl  seconded  the  motion,  which  was 
agreed  to. 
The  Chairman  moved  and  Mr.  Ah  zander  Lawiie 
seconded  the  re-election  of  the  retiring  directors 
(Messrs.  Holl  and  Halford.) 
The  motion  was  carried. 
Colonel  Nowell  proposed  and  Mr.  E.  Tye  seconded 
the  reappointment  of  Mr.  J.  F.  Kane  McGwire  as  the 
auditor,  and  this  also  was  passed. 
On  the  motion  of  Mr.  Tye,  seconded  by  Mr.  Smith 
Harvey,  the  thaDks  of  the  shareholders  were  vot-d  to 
the  chairman  and  directors  and  the  superintendents 
in  Assam  for  their  efficient  conduct  of  the  company’s 
business  during  the  year. 
A vote  of  thanks  to  the  Chairman  terminated  the 
proceedings, — Financial  News,  June  24. 
TEA  AND  TEA  PLANTS. 
By  Digamma. 
SreekoDah,  Cachar,  February  16th,  1892. 
This  is  a pleasant  place  on  the  little  rivpr  Ghogra 
just  below  the  falls,  and  close  up  to  the  military  road 
leading  from  Svlhet  to  Silchar.  There  is  no  lonely 
European  dwellers  here,  there  being  no  European  at 
all — only  myself  for  the  time  being.  The  resident  in 
chief  at  Sreekonah  is  a Baboo,  which  means  a “ native 
gentleman  ” — the  Baboo  Sonat  Kumar  Dass.  I re- 
ferred to  this  Baboo  in  a former  Budget,  saying 
that  he  and  I had  been  on  terms  of  intimacy  for  a 
number  of  years.  This  is  true.  We  are  good  friends. 
He  does  his  best  to  entertain  me.  Of  course  I may 
not  sleep  under  the  same  roof  with  him,  nor  eat 
from  the  same  dish,  because  in  his  eyes  I am  unclean, 
he  being  a very  religious  and  high  caste  Hindoo  who 
never  eats  the  flash  of  mammal  except  goat  offered 
in  sacrifice,  and  of  birds  only  pigeons.  He  is  a mau 
who  bathes  at  least  twice  a day,  who  rubs  his  teeth 
at  least  three  times  a day  with  a stick,  who  would 
rather  out  off  the  forefinger  of  his  left  hand  than 
touch  his  dinner  with  it,  who  believes  in 
ghosts  aod  witches  and  who  is  in  every  way 
devoted  to  the  service  of  his  gods.  H9  has 
very  many  gods.  Iu  addition,  he  is  a man  of  muoh 
cultivation,  great  intelligence,  thoughtful,  and  spiritually 
miDded.  But  the  Baboo  is  not  intolerant  according 
to  his  lights,  and  I have  the  use  of  his  covered 
verandah,  which  is  a room  good  enough  for  my  pur- 
pose. Then,  though  bo  abjures  all  alcoholic  drinks 
on  his  own  account,  he  has  provided  beer  for  my 
regalement,  and  many  other  good  things.  He  is 
singularly  free,  t o,  iu  conversation,  and  is  always 
ready  to  inform  me  in  detail  about  the  manners  and 
religion  of  his  people. 
Tea  grows  wild  in  the  jungle  of  Sreekonah.  It  is 
not  that  the  plant  had  been  brought  from  a distance 
for  cultivation  and  allowed  to  run  wild  like  cherries 
at  Gibside.  It  is  the  indigenous  plaDt— the  native 
tree.  Southern  as  well  as  northern  Assam,  the  valley 
of  the  Soorma-Barak  as  well  as  that  of  the  Brahma- 
pootra, is  the  natural  home  of  the  tea  plant.  Tea 
is  not  found  growing  wild  in  China  ; and  it  is  alleged 
that,  when  left  to  itself  there  the  plant  never  attains 
the  dimensions  of  a tree.  The  cultivated  tea  plant 
in  a plantation,  perforce  of  cons’ant  pruning,  is  a 
shrubby  bush,  having  the  dimensions  of  an  average 
black  currant  hush,  and  ranging  from  three  to  four 
feet  in  heigh*.  But  the  tea  plant  is  not  oaturally 
bushy.  On  the  coutrary  it  is  a tree  growing  up  to 
30ft.  high,  * and  having  not  unfreqoently,  at  the 
* It  grows  to  45  lest.  There  are  seed-bearers  on 
Abbotstord  ced-a'e,  Dimbula,  fully  35  feet  higo. 
—Ed.  T.A. 
thickest  part  of  its  trunk,  a girth  of  two  feet.  It 
throws  outwards  and  upwards  strong  woody  bran- 
ches, and  it  has  leaves  large,  leathery,  lanceolate, 
flat,  saw-edged  and  succulent.  Thi6  morning  I plucked 
from  a tea-tree  a leaf  which  lacks  only  the  six- 
teenth of  an  inch  to  be  a foot  long  and  is  full 
four  inches  wide.  I am  thinking  of  sending  it  to 
Mr.  Stewart,  teu  dealer  in  Newcastle,  for  curiosity’s 
sake.  Also,  I am  assured  that  still  larger  leaves  are 
met  with.*  It  was  in  1855  that  tea  was  found  growing 
wild  in  Oachar,  one  year  before  its  discovery  in 
Sylhet,  but  about  30  years  after  its  alleged  discovery 
in  Upper  Assam.  I have  seen  it  growing  wild  on  the 
Kuttal  estate  and  in  other  places,  but  nowhere  to  the 
same  perfection  as  in  this  Sreekonah  jungle,  where 
the  leaves  have  repeatedly  been  plucked  and  manufac- 
tured. The  Cookies  and  Oacharies  have  bten  wont  to 
gather  the  seed  of  wild  tea  (a  tea  seed  is  very  much 
like  a hazel  nut,  but  its  kernel  is  intensely  bitter), 
and  to  sell  it  to  the  planters.  The  produot  of  this 
seed  is  the  highly  priced  indigenous  plant  as  distin- 
guished from  the  China  and  Hybrid  varieties. 
It  is  told  oE  a certain  director  at  the  meeting  of 
an  Assam  tea  company  in  London  how  he  made  a 
motion  to  this  effect — that  Orange  Pekoe  ooly  should 
be  cultivated  in  the  garden  of  the  company,  seeing 
that  this  kind  of  tea  brings  a so  much  ureater  price 
in  the  market  than  any  other  kind.  His  motion,  if  he 
ever  made  it,  was  the  result  of  what  is  a very 
popular  error;  namely,  that  the  teas  classified  in  the 
markets  as  “ flowery  pekoe,”  “ orange  pekoe,”  “ pekoe,” 
••  souchong,”  “ pekoe-souchong,”  “ Congou,”  and  so 
forth  are  uot  only  different  qualities  of  tea,  but  differ- 
ent species  of  tea,  produced  ny  different  plants  and 
mayhap  in  different  places.  It  is  1 ot  so,  however. 
All  the  teas  mentioned  are  produced  by  the  same 
bush;  nor  is  there  anywhere  a tea  plant  whioh  may 
not  produce  every  one  of  them.  As  different  parts 
cf  the  hide  of  the  same  beast  vary  in  length  and 
firmness,  so  vary  a'so  the.  different  leaves  on  the  same 
tea  plaut.  As  the  outer  and  inner  leaves  of  a cabbage 
differ  in  tenderness  and  in  sweetness,  so  likewise 
differ  in  strength  and  in  aroma  the  loaves  of  the  same 
tea  shoot,  according  to  their  age  and  position.  Only 
the  young  succulent  leaves  on  the  new  shoots  oau  be 
manufactured  into  tea  wbich  the  grocer  sells;  and 
the  younger  the  leaf — the  higher  up  its  place  on  the 
shoot — the  finer  is  the  quality  of  the  tea  which  is 
made  of  it.  The  two  top  leaves  have  been  oiJled  the 
flowery  aod  orange  pekoes — ‘.he  pale  yellow  “ pekoe 
tips”  of  the  caretul  manufacturer.  Thereafter  comes 
the  pekoe  leaf,  aud  the  one  below  it  and  older  than 
it  the  souchong.  It  stands  to  reason  that,  though 
the  same  bush  yields  all  the  teas  iu  the  foregoing 
glassification,  al'  the  bushes  in  all  the  gardens  do  not 
yield  them  of  the  same  quality  ; for  one  pekoe  may 
differ  from  another  pekoe  and  one  souchong  from 
another  souchong  according  as  there  is  a difference 
in  the  character  of  the  seed  from  which  they  spring, 
in  the  quality  of  their  respective  soils,  and  in  their 
climatic  conditions.  There  is  another  error  about  tea 
from  which  certain  text-bpoks  of  Botany  have  not 
yet  shaken  themselves  clear.  Notwithstanding  the 
proved  identity  in  species  of  all  the  teas  sent  to  the 
markets  of  Europe  to  be  sold  for  consumption  as  a 
beverage,  they  are  still  frequently  spoken  of  as  be- 
longing to  three  distinct  species  of  plants — the  Tkea 
viridis  of  Linnseu*,  the  Thea  Bohea  (both  of  China), 
aud  the  Thea  assamica.  But  the  botanists  of  autho- 
rity are  agreed  to  consider  these  three  os,  at  the 
utmost,  only  varieties  of  one  species,  classifying  it 
under  the  name  of  Camellia  Tbea.  For  the  camellia 
aud  the  . tea  are  identical  iu  genus ; and  he  who 
has  seen  a camellia  has  seen  what  is  likest  the  tea 
plant — its  very  tirst-cousiD.  There  was  a time,  also, 
when  green  tea  was  supposed  to  be  mide  from  a 
different  species  of  plant  from  that  yielding  black  tea. 
It  has  not  to  be  said  that  green  tea  differs  from 
black  tea  ouly  in  the  method  of  manufacture,  and 
that  any  tea  leaf  may  oe  turned  out  either  green 
* Leaves  exceeding  1 foot  in  length  and  broad  in 
proportion  have  been  grown  in  Ceylon.— Ed.  T.A. 
