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JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
fined to these. The only oil-giving plant in the 
husbandry of the Burmese is the Sesamum Indi- 
cum , (N’han); but this is an object of very general 
culture throughout all the upper provinces. The 
oil is used by them in cookery, being their only 
substitute for butter; and where petroleum is 
high priced, it is burned. The oil-cake makes an 
useful provender for the working cattle in the 
dry season, when the arid lands of the upper pro¬ 
vinces are parched, and the pasture scanty or des¬ 
troyed.—Tea is cultivated on the hills by some 
of the mountain races, but it does not exist nearer 
Ava than five days’ journey, and we consequently 
saw none of it growing. The best is grown by 
the race called D’hanu, whose country lies to the 
north-east of Ava, distant about ten days’ journey. 
The leaves are elliptic, oblong, and serrated like 
the Chinese plant; and the Burmese, not follow¬ 
ing the practice of other nations, designate the 
latter by the native name of their own plant, 
Lap’het. There is little doubt, therefore, but that 
it is a genuine Thea , and most probably a native 
of the country. The Burmese eat the leaf pre¬ 
pared with oil and garlic, and never use the infu¬ 
sion as they do that of Chinese tea, which they 
call Lap’het-re, or tea-water. 
The cocoa and areca palms are not very fre¬ 
quent in the southern provinces, even in the 
neighbourhood of the sea, where they might na¬ 
turally be looked for; and as we proceed north- 
