August i, i8go,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
Z39 
In conclusion, my advice to cinchona planters in this 
Presidency and probably Ceylon also, is : Do not 
plant cinchona of any kind below 5,000 feet. If 
needs you must plant cinchona, go up, up, up, and 
plant some good hybrid. 
Do not try and preserve your cinchona, if you see 
it going out from stem or root canker, at a lower 
elevation, it would merely be throwing good money 
after bad. And even if you tried to, and succeeded 
in preserving it for some few years, by the expensive 
means advocated, look at your accounts, and see 
whether present and near future prices will reim- 
burse you for such cultivation. 
For all this I am simply giving my opinion for 
what it may be worth, and for the sake of the 
Wynaad planters I sincerely hope I may be wrong. 
Even for my own sake and the cinchona I still have 
at lower elevations, I shall be glad if my opinion is 
refuted. 
Finally, hard as I may seem to have been on Mr. 
Lawson in my statements, it is not for my own 
benefit that I express them. It is for the sake 
of my afflicted brother (cinchona) planters, that I 
have written. ' I therefore trust Mr. Lawson will 
not take my remarks amiss, and if he cares to 
come up here and, if possible, change his opinion 
he will find us not bad hosts, and growers of A1 
cinchona. 
I am also very willing to admit that Mr. Lawson’s 
advice, in other directions than those touched upon, 
is excellent. But a better market must rule before 
we can carry it out. — I am, sir, yours faithfully, 
J. V. EOHENBEEG. 
TEA IN CEYLON. 
Dbab Sib, — You are not quite accurate in your 
leading article of the 20th inst. under the heading 
“ The Earliest Eeferences to Tea in this Island” and 
you do Bennett an injustice when you say, his 
botanical blundering was speedily exposed.” Bennett 
says (pp. 276-7.) “ The late Asst. Staff Surgeon 
Crawford in 1826 sent him from Battioaloa a very 
fine specimen of what Crawford considered the real 
tea, it fully answered the generic description of 
Thea Boliea of Linnaeus, and he gives a colored 
plate of the sketch he took of it, and then adds 
‘‘ but I was altogether unsuccessful in my own 
researches for the plant in the jungles of Maha- 
gampattoo.” Percival (1805) pp. 330-1 says the tea 
plant was found native in the forests and growing 
spontaneously in the neighbourhood of Trincomalee; 
He further says the soldiers of the garrison sun- 
dried the leaves and boiled them and many pre- 
ferred the decoction to cofiee I &c., &o. On the 
other hand Oordiner (1807) says (p. 285- 1 “The real 
t( a tree is not indigenous in Ceylon, but the island 
produces several species of that genus,” &c., &c. 
E. B. CEEASY. 
[We are obliged to our correspondent for his 
interesting notes, but we scarcely think we have 
done Bennett an injustice, for in publishing the 
plate he took the responsibility attaching to the 
belief that the true tea plant had been found 
growing wild in Ceylon. This will we think be 
seen from a perusal of the full passage in Bennett. 
Ho ought to have taken steps to verify Dr. Crawford’s 
supposed “ find,” before he lent his authority to 
the statement that the tea plant existed in Ceylon. 
{.From "Bennett's Ceylon and its Capabilities.”) 
The jungles adjoining this place, and throughout 
the Mahnpampattoo district, abound with the “ wild 
tea tree,” as it is culled, but which, I am informed, is 
a f-pecies of Orchis. It bears yellow flowers ; and the 
poorebt people are accustomed to use the leaf both for 
food and drink ; for the former, boiled and mixed with 
Tyre, arid for the latter, an infusion oi the green leaf. It 
is called Gal-Kureo by the Sinhalese ; who also employ 
the leaf of another plant, which greatly resembles that 
of the Thea Bohea, L., and is called by them Rata^The- 
Kola, (or Red-Tea leaf,) in a similar manner. 
Although the infusion of the green leaf is a very 
bitter drink, it is an excellent tonic, and its taste 
may be greatly improved by the addition of the in- 
digenous lemon grass (Andropogon Scheenanthus, L.) 
and sugar; but that made with the dried leaf, is a toler- 
able subs itute for Bohea tea. 
The late Assistant Staff Surgeon Crawford, at the 
time he superintended the hospital duties at Battioaloa, 
in 1826, sent me, by a native Lhoney bound to Ham- 
bantots, a collection of insects and plants ; and among 
the latter, a very fine specimen of what he considered 
the real tea, in flower. It fully answered the generic 
description of the Thea Bohea of Linneens ; and, as it 
both flowered and seeded freely, I made a sketch of it, 
of which an engraving is annexed, but I was altogether 
unsuccessful in my own researches for the plant in the 
jungles of the Mahagampattoo. 
Mr. Crawford did not assume any merit to himself 
as having made a new discovery, and it is very clear 
that the Dutch were well aware of the tea plant being 
indigenous in the eastern province ; but it is to be 
wondered at, that the Government has not. long ere 
this, directed its attention to so important an object of 
commerce ; for if it be worth while to cultivate tea in 
so distant a country as Assam, with all its inoonveni- 
enoies and dangers, surely it would be a more lucrative 
speculation, in a colony so much nearer home, and with 
increased facilities of export. But this, like the bread 
fruit tree, is another chance discovery ; and a better 
acquaintance with Ceylon in 1787-1789, would have 
rendered the two expensive trips to Otaheite, for sup- 
plying the West Indies with bread frnit plants, inex- 
pedfent ; for they could have been obtained in any 
quantity from this island, and have obviated all the 
disastrous consequences of the mutiny on board His 
Majesty’s ship “ Bounty.” 
Captain Percival, in his “Account of Ceylon,” pub- 
lished in 1805, informs us, “ that the tea plant has 
also been discovered native in the forests of the island. 
It grows spontaneously in the neighbourhood of Trin- 
comald, and other northern parts of Ceylon. General 
Champagne in formed methat thesoldiers of the garrison 
frequently use it. They cut the branches and twigs, 
and hang them in the sun to dry ; they then take off 
the leaves, and boil them to extract the juice, which has 
all the properties of that of the China leaf. I have in 
my pocket a letter from an officer in the 80th regiment, 
in which he states that he had found the real tea 
plant, in the woods of Ceylon, of a quality equal to 
any that ever grew in China, and that it was in his 
power to point out to Government the means of 
cultivating it in a proper manner.” 
—Ed. T. A.'i 
JUTE MESH POE WITHEEING TEA. 
Ivies, Yatiyantota, June 25th; 
SiE, — ‘Eeferring to your note attached to my letter 
re Jute Mesh for withering 1 wish to say that the 
coarse sample sent you is that of the cloth that the 
Calcutta firm say the Indian tea estates have been 
using for some time for withering. It weighs 16 
ounces per yard and would cost 17 to 18 cents. I 
do not think it suitable for ivithering tats, though it 
might be useful for drying wet leaf or for covering 
reeper floors ; but I hope that Jute Tivist Mesh 
weighing 10 to 12 ounces will be found to be as 
strong and cheap and consequently superior for this, 
the purpose for which I intended it. 
The fine sample sent you is one nf those I had 
made in England, but 1 consider it rather too light 
for withering tats. If it were made as described 
in my previous letter under the name of Jute 
Hessian Mesh I think it would be about equal in 
weight and strength to the hessian now used ; and 
I see no reason why it should be dearer out of 
proportion to its weight. 
