November 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
123 
the glass at the hack of the house, and the plants 
continue blooming throughout the year. 
The first consignment of plants from Mr. Jeffrey, 
sent to Oregon hy the Scotch association to collect 
i hardy plants, has arrived. It contains nothing hut 
, well-known species of Conifers, such as Pinus (Abies) 
i alba, Pinus ( Larix ) mierocarpa, and Pinus BanJcsiana, 
but this deficiency of interest is neither a ground for 
suspecting the incompetency of the collector, nor the 
I absence of novelties in the selected region. The con¬ 
signment was sent, probably, as an evidence that he 
had lost no time in getting to work. 
W e see announced in the North British Agriculturist 
the death of Dr. W. A. Bromfielcl, of Ryde, in the Isle 
of Wight. He died at Damascus, in October ; and we 
agree with our contemporary in lamenting this great 
loss from the staff of British botanists, and in hoping 
that his MS. collection for a floral and botanical map 
of the Isle of Wight will be arranged by a competent 
editor, and speedily published. 
For the second time we rejoice that Mr. Fortune has 
returned in safety from China, where, and in India, 
lie has been absent about four years collecting plants 
of the genuine Tea-tree, and conveying them to the 
East India Company’s plantations in northern Hin- 
dostan. He has returned despite the temptation of a 
lucrative appointment offered to him in connection with 
those plantations; nor are we surprised at this refusal 
on his part, if the appointment involved service in 
Assam, one of the most deadly districts of the Indian 
peninsular. This revived effort to render Tea a staple 
product of our Indian dominions may render the 
following notes, made by us on the spot, of some 
interest, as they relate to the first discovery of Tea in 
the Assam district:— 
Writing in 1842, we said, “ There is scarcely room for 
doubting that, in the course of a few years, tea will become 
one of the staple exports of India. Thousands of young 
tea-plants are distributed annually from the Calcutta Botanic 
Garden to various European residents, in districts favourable 
for their growth; and very extensil e plantations are under cul¬ 
tivation in Assam, where the genuine tea-plant (Theca) has 
been found native. These plantations, partly effected by 
government, and partly by the Assam Tea Company, an¬ 
nually become more productive. In the current year (1842 ) 
1 at least 150,000 lbs. will be manufactured, and in 1845 more 
j than twice as much. 
“ The subject is viewed with much interest at Calcutta ; 
■ and so highly important is the discovery of tea in Assam 
considered, that in 1841, the public journals contained many 
communications, relative to the claim of being its discoverer. 
I The London Society of Arts voted its gold medal to Mr. 
i Bruce, the Tea Company’s Superintendant in Assam ; and, 
after a contest, in which the Agricultural Society of India 
was rendered the arena of not a very creditable partisanship, 
: this Association voted gold medals to Captains Charlton and 
Jenkins, for their services in introducing the tea-plant to 
public notice. As it has become of so much interest, we 
will recapitulate what we know to have been the progress of 
the discovery. 
“ In 1815, Colonel Salter was well acquainted with the 
tea of Assam, that was brought to the Rungpore market in 
a manufactured state. Three years subsequently, the Hon. 
Mr. Gardner, our resident at the Nepaulese court, sent 
flowers and ripe fruit of the tea-plant to Dr. Wallich; and 
by the latter, they were forwarded to Sir Joseph Banks. In 
1822, Dr. Gerard, and others, reported that more than one 
species of tea was indigenous to India, but it was not esta¬ 
blished whether these were not of the genus Camellia. 
“ But in 1823-24 and 25, the late Mr. Scott (well-known 
as a naturalist in India) wrote to Dr. Wallich, stating, deci¬ 
sively, that the Assam tea-shrub is the true Thcea, and 
sending a drawing, &c., of the seed-capsule. Mr. Swinton 
got part of a boat-load of tea-plants from Assam early in 
1826; similar tea-plants were received in the Calcutta 
Botanic Garden from Mr. Scott, in 1827. Major Vetch, at 
Lucknow, sent to Assam for some in the same year. Major i 
Bruce, who died in 1825, was so aware of the value of the , 
plant that, in his ‘ Calendar,’ he stated the period for col- j 
lecting the seedlings and seeds. Major Wilcox knew of the i 
plant’s existence at that time, and states his reasons for 
believing that Major Bruce, and Mr. Bruce, were those who 
first sent plants and seeds to Mr. Scott—that is in 1823; 
and Mr. Bruce himself states, he obtained a canoe full of 
the plants, about 1826, from the same native from whom 
his brother obtained two plants in exchange for a musical 
snuff-box. Soon after, Captain Neufville, and almost every 
one else in Assam, possessed them ; and when Dr. Wallich 
was there, in 1836, he found every one asserting that Major 
and Mr. Bruce were the first European discoverers of the 
plants in Assam. 
“ In 1832, Captain Jenkins was appointed by government 
to survey Assam, and he furnished an official report of the 
localities where the tea-plant had been found. Earlier in 
the same year, Captain Charlton wrote many particulars 
relative to the plant, in a letter to Dr. Tytler. But nothing 
for rendering tea an article of Indian commerce was effected 
until Lord W. Bentinck, in 1834, recorded a minute, recom¬ 
mending “ measures for introducing the cultivation of the 
tea-plant within the British possessions in India.” Dr. 
Wallich visited Assam, and reported very fully upon its tea 
localities. Government soon after commenced attempts to 
establish its cultivation; but, by degrees, parted with the 
larger portion of their plantations to the Assam Tea Com¬ 
pany. 
“ The simple fact, that more than 30,000,000tbs. of tea 
are required annually for the British market, and about half 
that quantity for America, would necessarily keep attention 
aroused to the proceedings of this Company; from the 
exertions of which we look with well-grounded expectations, 
that in the course of a few years, India will share largely in 
this lucrative trade; and that the value of her tea produce 
will equal that of her indigo, before any very protracted 
period of time has elapsed. 
“ The reports of the Company demonstrate, that though 
there have been many losses incurred, and many disappoint¬ 
ments, which might have been avoided, if the experience 
and knowledge they have purchased could have been pos¬ 
sessed by intuition; yet we do not observe any that have 
been needlessly incurred. The heaviest have arisen in the 
endeavour to remove the greatest existing obstacle to the 
more rapid increase in the amount of the tea manufactured. 
For in Assam, unlike most other parts of India, the scarcity 
of labour is extreme. This is not difficult of explication, 
for the jungle has been allowed to increase to a fearful 
extent, and when nature is thus neglected, she is a deadly 
opponent in her warfare against man. She has thinned the 
population of Assam to a remnant, and the servants of the i 
Company have suffered miserably in the struggle now 
making to reclaim the wilderness. Every year seems to j 
have reduced the number of the inhabitants, rendering 
labourers consequently more scarce, and the Company have 
been making strenuous efforts to remedy this deficiency. 
“ The most apparent source from whence to derive 
labourers, was China; because, if the hiring had been judi- | 
ciously conducted, men, accustomed to some portion of the 
various businesses necessary to the preparation and packing j 
of tea, might have been reasonably expected to be tbeuce | 
derived. This, unfortunately, was not sufficiently attended 
to; and instead of procuring a respectable, efficient body of j 
workmen’ a set of ruffians were imported, who, by their con¬ 
duct whilst in Calcutta, demonstrated how very much less 
than worthless they were, and that to the first loss the 
Company most wisely submitted, though amounting to 
nearly 30,000 rupees. 
“ Another loss, amounting to about one-third as much, 
was incurred by endeavouring to get to the tea localities a 
