I might almost say a smiling province. The erstwhile unopened stretch of country between two ranges of hills and intersected by a river, is now a fairly cultivated district, sending its produce all over the world; giving employment to hundreds of Europeans and thousands of natives; communicated with (in part) by the railway of the Eastern Bengal Company, and the steamers of two companies; boasting of its importance in the possession of a Chief Commissioner, and an Administration separate from that of the Bengal Presidency. Where once jungle and its deadly miasma concealed the riches and importance of the province, hundreds of thousands of acres of open land are now to be seen, planted with tea! Compared with past times, Assam is no longer a howling wilderness; and the change from hundreds of miles of waste into cultivated land has altered almost everything. Therefore, as I have said, the climate has become greatly modified. It needs no argument to support the fact that where you clear and cultivate land the rainfall is lessened; and the atmospheric moisture is reduced when the sun gets to the earth, and the soil is sweetened by ventilation and good cultivation. To the tea-plant in its wild state, moisture was most essential; but extended cultivation has reduced the humidity of Assam, and the indigenous plant is consequently not so well off when cultivated as when in its jungly seclusion.

Tea of the hybrid class is being cultivated remuneratively at the present time in places where, I am certain, the indigenous plant could not live. Tea of the same

order is also thriving and paying, after living through neglect and harsh treatment which would have killed indigenous tea in its infancy. Had the deteriorated (China) plant not been brought back to India, and allied itself with its old species, I am convinced that the enterprise of Indian tea cultivation would have been confined to a very considerably less extent than that at which it is now carried on. Assam is acknowledged to be the best tea climate in India; yet even here, in many places, indigenous tea will not thrive. What, then, about other districts with climates less favourable than Assam ? Unless China tea had been introduced for exclusive growth in such localities, there would have been no plants suitable for them. It is hardly to be expected that results obtained from China gardens in Kangra and Kumaon would have been sufficient to increase the industry to its present dimensions. The indigenous Indian plant was found growing in rich soil, in valleys sheltered by dense jungles and with a very moist atmosphere; and it would be unreasonable to expect it to thrive, if even to live, on exposed hilly elevations and in drier climates out of Assam. The natural inference, therefore, is, that districts now growing tea would not have been opened out as tea-producing districts, but for the happy provision of nature in supplying a suitable plant. Suffering indirectly from John Chinaman's ill-treatment, it was well off when fairly cultivated in moderately good soil, and receiving a medium rainfall. It did not languish or grow delicate when away from jungly seclusion and constant moisture; so it was planted in many

districts of India and in Ceylon, and is doing well everywhere.

Thea Bohea Assamica went away from home, and allowed botanists (who had not found his parents), to give him the name of Chinensis; but he has gone back now to the old country, and has agreed to remain, upon the acceptance of the equitable proposition (resulting from these radical times), that as he and his near relatives are getting old it is useless to quarrel about the family name; so they have made a new one, of a modern cast, for their progeny, which writers on the subject designate in English instead of afflicting it with its doubtful Latin title, and call the hybrid. There is peace in the family at last, and the rising generation is looked upon hopefully.

CHAPTER III.

THE SUPERIORITY OF INDIAN OVER CHINA TEAS.

IN Chapter II. "India the Home of the Tea-plant," I have endeavoured to show that as a growing plant Indian tea is superior to that of China. The most natural sequence would therefore be that the manufactured produce would be better-and so it is.

I have also elsewhere mentioned the purpose to which Indian tea is put by the retailing grocer; and I think the simple fact that it is systematically used to fortify tea from China, will decisively prove it to be generally superior for practical purposes. My wish, in this chapter, is to show by what causes, other than the fact of the tea-plant being in its natural home in India, this superiority is brought about and maintained.

The chemical constituents of good tea are the volatile oil, tannic acid, and theine, with other such elements as are commonly found in the leaves of vegetables. It

owes its smell, and part of its effects, to its volatile oil. The tannic acid blackens the salts of iron, as does the tannic acid of the oak. The theine is the most remarkable constituent. In using tea, those parts only are used which are extracted by the water-the ethereal oil, the tannate of theine, gum, and most of the soluble salts. The theine is composed of eight atoms of carbon, four atoms of nitrogen, ten atoms of hydrogen, and two atoms of oxygen; and the nutritive power is contained in the two azotised substances-theine and caseine.

Such is good tea. In Chapter VIII. "The Social Phase of Tea-drinking," will be found some of the beneficial effects; but to show its possible action upon the system, I quote from the work of one of the most eminent medical authorities, Dr. Thompson :

"There is probably no substance, not strictly medicinal, which exerts so powerful an influence upon the nervous system as tea, especially the green variety, of which many individuals cannot even take the smallest quantity without experiencing the most disagreeable effects; they become faint, the action of the nervous system is disturbed, the hand trembles, the heart palpitates, sometimes gastric spasm is induced, but more generally a feeling of raking the stomach, and of extreme hunger after a full meal; lastly, there is extreme wakefulness. There are some persons upon whom green tea produces the same effect as digitalis, and it has been medicinally employed in the diseases for which that herb has so deservedly obtained a high reputation. Desbois, of Rochefort, has,