March i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
687 
a healthy and tasteful plant. The deep valley of 
Assam, where a mighty river flooded through track- 
less jungles, became a smiling garden, where hundreds 
ot Europeans and thousands of Natives lived and 
worked constantly through the years, and the tea 
plant blossomed abundantly. Year by year tlie 
estivation spread, until it reached even to Ceylon. 
The Coffee planters in that beautiful island looked 
on in amazement, and saw the tea trade coming 
from China to India. Then, in 1876, there came a 
failure of the coffee crop, and Ceylon figured in the 
market with its tea. 
Now come two or three hard facts. In the midst of 
the struggles of the Indian plant to get a hold in our 
market, the Chinese methousof ad uHeration reached 
a maximum. Some of the methods adopted wore 
simply poisonous, and others were startling from 
their very audacity. One sample analysed in London 
gave the results of 40 per cent, of iron filings and 
19 per cent, of silica. The adulterations were truly 
shocking and the Customs authorities found power 
to examine all unports and to control such things 
within what might be called reasonable limits. 
Then the planters of India went to work on a 
scientific basis, and raised good tea, sending the 
unadulterated leaves to our market. But Englishmen 
are slow to change. Habits once acquired grow to the 
tenacity of religions beliefs, and tl>e adulterated 
China products held their own in onr market for 
many a day. Then came the wise men who saw 
what was required. 
It is amusing to note the manner in which Indian 
tea has stolen in on ns, in spite of ourselves. 'I’ako 
Livei^ool as au example. A shrewd man saw that 
the Cnineso tea could be “ blended ” with Indian 
tea, to make a pleasant beverage. He taught the 
grocers how to do it, and a revolution was eflectod— • 
or is being effected — on purely evolutionary motliods. 
The public liked the new blend well, for the Indian 
teas are strong, and the Chinese tea.s are weak, and 
an ounce of Indian tea will make almost as much 
good liquor as two ounces of Chinese tea, and so 
their advantage to use the 
,^^®wlywe change; slow^v the planters 
change; slowly the trade changes.' But all is 
on^iging. J he Indian tea gardeners are naine hy- 
brid plants, crosses, between Indian and Chinese. 
English people; are drinking hybrid teas, and we 
are all slowly learning to appreciate the good qualities 
of the ^ wonderful liquor which the old woman so 
mysteriously sold in the Chinese market place so long 
ago. It would nut be surprising to find a school 
opened soon, to teach the girls of the artisan class 
tea. It would be worth doing, f r 
the liquor of the evergreen tree is marvellous in its 
quality, and the smell of the “ tea-cans" of working 
men makes one shudder. We import good tea, hut 
only the few know how to brow it. Good China tea 
cemes to ub, but only the rich use it. Indian tea 
is coming to us in ever increasing voIutho. 
To look over the returns of the tea traders today 
gives one a start of surprise. Statistics jire not as 
a rule good reading, but the moaning of the stati- 
stics of the tea men lies so close to the surfs, ce, 
that they are interesting to all. Tho figures here 
quoted are not for the entire year, only for the 
months between January 1 and September 30 ; but 
they show two things, first tho enormous impor- 
tation of tea ; second, the direction of the trade. 
CHINKSE IMPORTATION, IN POUNDS. 
1888. 1889. 1890, 
148,426,476 .. 13.3,843,124 ... 139,887,122 
INDIAN IMPORTATION, IN POUNDS. 
1888. 1889. 1890. 
66,9.5.5,507 .. 75,369,066 .. 89,133,628 
-the steady increase in the latter figures is sug- 
gestive. One more statement, and I must close for 
j The amount of tea imported into Liverpool 
about throe million pounds, and careful 
calculated that this means an average 
nsumption of HO ounces per head, per annum. It 
.“n examination, that most people 
**' than tliat ; hnt tlio estimate 
ittiy errs on tho side of moderation, and way, 
therefore, be accepted by all parties. The more tea 
people drink, the leas intoxicants they will require ; 
and the sooner we have classes to teach how to nse' 
tea to the best advantage, tho better it will be for 
us all . — Madron Times. 
])0\ATIONS TO THH PJIAKSIACKUTICAL 
SOCIETY’S MUSEUM. 
BY K. M. HOMES, F.LS., CUliATOH. 
JAVA. 
Some months since, at the time that Professor 
Dnnstan was investigating some of the wood be- 
lieved to bo the product of Celtis ^etiovlosa, a 
speimen of which tiad been handed to him from 
the Hanbiiry collection, I wrote to the Director 
of the Java Botanic Garden to inqure, lat, if 
pveral other trees which were known to the Malays 
by the same or a similar name had the same pecu* 
liar fcDcal odour or were likely to contain the same 
principle, akatole; 2nd, if it would be possible to 
send for the Society's Herbarium specimens in fruit 
of the plants yielding the various tulso cubebs that 
have entered into oommerce: 3rd, if anything was 
known of the trees producing the I'enang and 
Paleuibang benzoins of commerce, which differ in 
physical characters and odour, and are probably 
obtained from different species of fiti/rax; <lth, 
if tho mctliod of preparing the beautiful bright 
red dragon s blood in sticks from Pontianak 
was known. Some of the lost named product 
was exhibited at tho Paris Exhibition in 187H, 
and was considered by an artist to whom I 
showed It to bo of suftioient value as a colour for 
inquiry ^ to be made, if it could be regularly ob- 
tained in commerce. In reply to those inquiries 
I received, a few weeks ago, the following speci- 
mens and tlie accompanying letter from Ur. M. 
Treub, tho Director of the Goveniment Botanic 
Gardens in Java, 
“ Dear Sir,— I have the pleasure to inform you 
the despatch of a wooden case containing the fol- 
lowing objects for your Museum: — 
“1. Several pounds of ki-taai or kayoe taai 
from Java. iPreanger Regoncies.l (A beautiful 
drawing of the Ceiti.t rrticuloaa accompanied this 
specimen.) ^ 
‘‘2. Dried herUrium apocimena of Cnhelm 
ViolhxHima^ ranina and C. ojicivafift, with dried 
fruita and fruits from the latter in spirit. 
“2. Benzoin [BalembangJ as sold at Java. 
“ 4. A piece of the wood of Styrax Benzoiiif with 
the benzoin on the surface of the bark and a dried 
specimen of the plant, 
“ .5. Dragon's hlood from Borneo. 
“ (aj Djernang-koekoe, 3 pipes of dragon’s blood 
with a fruit. 
“ (hj Djernang-mandai, 8 fruits in a little box 
^^{cj Djeriiang beroewang, 3 fruits. 
leaves'* blood wrapped in 
leaves ““*■ W‘^®'PP6<3 •" 
“ r/; A small piece of dragon's blood said to bo quite 
pure, [m a boxj. 
“fll) dragon's blood from Sumatra. 
‘ i he ki-taai or kayoe toai had been found to be the 
wood of CtltM itHculona. 
“Dr. Gustroff, who made a study on tho subject, 
iufoniiH me that all tho other plants said to yield 
skatole \I‘rentua coi'i/mJiosOt Preiiwa foetidOf tiaprosma 
arjmrem^ do not contain it. They ore only called 
ki-taai [stinkwood] by the Javanese because they all 
smell very bad. 
“ As to the origin of the false cubebs sent to me, I am 
sorry to sity that they arc not known to me except the 
‘ koboe-cuheba,’ which seems to be the fruit ^ 
t.’iihfha mollissima, Miq. [Miquel comnientatio da 
pipero cubebo. fjeiden, 1838 — 18,'i!n. I hnliou^^ , 1 '* 
others arc not from here. ' ” “'e. 
" P'rom the benzoin enclosed in the case ti>ms(ha.,„ u 
tho dried specimen of the plant yielding itf^n S ‘ 
that tlierc is no difference as to the bo^n L^l 
tweou the Palembaug and vwieties! oSe ot 
