e Chinese green tea. The black tea is very bad. The
Japanese tea-tree, is an evergreen, growing in the most sterile places
to the height of about six feet. It is described as above, by
Koempfer, as having leaves like the cherry, with a flower like the wild
rose; when fresh, the leaves have no smell, but a very astringent
taste. Tea grows in all the southern provinces of Japan, but the best
green is produced in the principality of Kioto, where it is cultivated
with great care.

A few years ago, Messrs. Worms attempted the cultivation of tea in
Ceylon. The island, however, lies too far within the tropics to offer
a climate like Assam, which is situate without them. The plants may
thrive to appearance, but that is not a demonstration of their
quality. The tea-plant has reached upwards of six feet in height at
Pinang, and in as healthy a state as could be desired, but the leaf
had no flavor, and although thousands of Chinese husbandmen cultivate
spices, and other tropical productions on that island, no one thinks
it worth while to extend the cultivation of the tea-plant in Pinang.
The Chinese there laugh at the idea of converting the leaf into a
beverage.

The cultivation of the tea-plant has been introduced into the United
States, and those planters who have tried the experiment have
succeeded beyond their highest expectations. Dr. Junius Smith had
successfully cultivated the plant on his property called Golden grove,
near Grenville, in South Carolina. His plants were in full blossom,
and as healthy and flourishing as those of China at the same stage of
growth. Everything connected with them looked favorable, and Dr. Smith
felt abundantly encouraged to extend the culture of the several
descriptions of tea upon his property. It is stated that his
expectations were so great, that he contemplated to place fresh tea on
the tea-tables of England and Paris in twenty days, from the
plantation. He had a large supply of plants, and tea seed enough for a
million more. The black descriptions blossomed earlier than the green
plant, but the latter also blossomed luxuriantly.

He introduced at first about 500 plants of from five to seven years'
growth, overland from the north-west provinces of India, and some from
China direct.

In the close of 1849, he writes me:--

"During the past year the tea-plant under my care has passed through
severe trials, from the injury received in transplanting, from the
heat generated in