TEA PLANT. 223 
it with a view to ascertain the form of the leaves, I found it to 
consist of the scarcely expanded buds of the plant. 
The question whether the tea plant will thrive in any other 
country than China, has in a great measure been settled by the 
success of the tea plantations at Rio under very little encouragement. 
It may be worth, however, considering what are the countries in 
which it is most likely to succeed, from their relation to its natural 
places of growth. The green tea district in the province of Keang- 
nan is embraced between the twenty-ninth and thirty-first degrees of 
north latitude, and is situated at the north-western base of a ridge of 
mountains which divides the provinces of Che-keang and Keang- 
nan. The black tea district, in the province of Fokien, is contained 
within the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth degrees of north 
latitude, and is situated on the south eastern declivities of a ridge 
of mountains dividing the province of Fokien from that of Keang-si. 
Thus the whole range of the great tea districts of China, from the 
lowest to the highest degree of latitude, is from twenty-seven to 
thirty-one. But although these are the two districts from which 
the tea consumed in Europe is derived, the plant also flourishes in 
much higher latitudes. According to the Missionaries, it thrives in 
the more northern provinces of China ; and from Kasmfer it would 
appear, that it is cultivated in Japan as far as forty-five north 
latitude. All the known habitats of this plant are consequently 
within the temperate zone. Looking then to the latitudes in which 
the tea is cultivated with success, and especially to those of the 
great black and green tea districts, the Cape of Good Hope would 
seem to be the most eligible geographical situation for its culture ; 
and perhaps would be also found the most favourable with respect to 
soil. 
It appears, from every account given of the tea plant, that it suc- 
ceeds best on the sides of mountains, where there can be but little 
accumulation of vegetable mould. Our opportunities of seeing its 
cultivation were few, but were all in favour of this conclusion. Its 
plantations were always at some elevation above the plains, in a 
