The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
No one, acquainted with vegetable physiology, can doubt the
advantages of such weather in the cultivation of tea for mercantile
purposes. And these advantages, to a certain extent at least, seem
to be extended to the Himalayas, although the regular rainy season
is later than in China. I have already shown, from Dr Jameson's
table, that spring showers are frequent in Kumaon, although rare in
the plains of India; still, however, I think it would be prudent to
adopt the gathering of leaves to the climate, that is to take a
moderate portion from the bushes before the rains, and the main crop
after they have commenced.
_3rd. On the vegetation of China and the Himalayas_. One of the
surest guides from which to draw conclusions, on a subject of this
nature, is found in the indigenous vegetable productions of the
countries. Dr. Royle, who was the first to recommend the cultivation
of tea in the Himalayas, drew his conclusions, in the absence of
that positive information from China which we possess now, not only
from the great similarity in temperature between China and these
hills, but also from the resemblance in vegetable productions. This
resemblance is certainly very striking. In both countries, except in
the low valleys of the Himalayas (and these we are not considering),
tropical forms are rarely met with. If we take trees and shrubs, for
example, we find such genera as pinus, cypress, berberis, quercus,
viburnam, indigofera, and romeda, lonicera, deutzia, rubus, myrica,
spiræ, ilex, and many others common to both countries.
Amongst herbaceous plants we have gentiana, aquilegia, anemone,
rumex, primula, lilium, loutodon, ranunculus, &c. equally
distributed in the Himalayas and in China, and even in aquatics the
same resemblance may be traced, as in nelumbium, caladium &c. And
further than this, we do not find plants belong to the same genera
only, but in many instances the identical species are found in both
countries. The indigofera, common in the Himalayas, abounds also on
the tea hills of China, and so does _Berberis nepaulencis_,
_Lonicera diversifolia_, _Myrica sapida_, and many others.
Were it necessary, I might now show that there is a most striking
resemblance between the geology of the two countries as well as in
their vegetable productions. In both the black and green tea
countries which I have alluded to, clay-slate is most abundant. But
enough has been advanced to prove how well many parts of the
Himalayas are adapted for the cultivation of tea; besides, the
flourishing condition of many of the plantations is, after all, the
best proof, and puts the matter beyond all doubt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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