are nothing more than mere varieties of one and the same plant, the changes in the form of the leaf being brought about by cultivation. Moreover, throughout the plantation fifty varieties might easily be pointed out; but they run so into each other as to render it impossible to assign them any trivial character, and the produce of the seed of different varieties does not produce the same varieties only, but several varieties, proving that the changes are entirely owing to cultivation; nor do the plants, cultivated at 6,000 feet in the Himalayas, differ in the least in their varieties from those cultivated at 2,500 feet of altitude in the Dehra Dhoon. [Sidenote: Assam species.] “That the Assam plant is a marked species is true, it being distinguished by its large membranous and lanceolate leaf, small flower, and upright growth. “It is a very inferior plant for making Tea, and its leaves are therefore not used.[19] Though the plants received from the different districts of China do not differ from those first sent to the plantations, it is highly important to know that the Tea plants from well-known green and black Tea districts of China now exist in the plantations, as it is stated that local causes exert a great influence in the quality of the Teas as much as the manufacture does. The expense, therefore, incurred in stocking the Government plantations with the finest kinds and varieties of Tea plants procurable in China, though great, will be amply repaid. From them superior kinds of Tea are produced.” The above extract is a sample of the said “Records.” They abound in errors and highly coloured statements, which induced many to embark in Tea on unfavourable sites, and “the red book” (it is bound in a red cover) is not exactly blessed by the majority of the Himalayan planters! FOOTNOTES: [16] It is a singular fact that none exists in Northern Cachar, that is, on the northern side of the river. [17] And also the introduction of a bad class of plants.--E. M. [18] A single small sample of Tea very carefully made, and with an amount of labour which could never be bestowed on the mass, is little or no criterion. Tea is better made in Kumaon in 1878 than it was in 1842, but Kumaon Tea does not vie in price with Eastern Bengal produce. All the Himalayan Tea is weak, though of a delicate flavour; all Tea grown at high elevation _must_ be so.--E. M. [19] A little enquiry would have shown this was not true, even when it was written. All Tea planters, brokers, and all interested in Tea, know now (many knew it then) that the “Assam species,” viz., the indigenous, makes the most valuable Tea produced.--E. M. CHAPTER X. TEA SEED. Though there is a great difference in Tea plants (see last chapter) the seed of all is the same, and it is therefore impossible to say from what class of plants it has been gathered.