an, where he amused himself in making excavations, and has succeeded in finding several idols. At Cabul, he has been engaged in the same kind of pursuit, and has been rewarded here also by his discovery of several idols quite entire. Among his discoveries is an inscription on a piece of paper made of the leaf of a tree, but which unhappily is so worm eaten and injured by the lapse of time as not to be legible.

The recommendatory letter which you wrote to SYED KERAMET ALI, respecting me, has been delivered to him; he frequently visits me, and shews me every attention in his power. A káfila from Bokhara is expected here either to-day or to-morrow. Nawab JABBAR KHAN is very anxious to procure some platina, for making experiments in alchemy; the mysteries of which, the credulous natives of this country labour in vain to discover.

I send you herewith a rough map of the country lying between Cabul and Déra Ghází-Khán, which we traversed, and hope that it will be acceptable, notwithstanding its imperfect execution from my want of skill as a draughtsman. (See the accompanying Plate.)

III. On the Aptitude of the Himálayan Range for the Culture of the Tea Plant. By Dr. H. Falconer, Supt. of the H. C. Bot. Garden, Seharunpur.

[Extracted from a Letter to G. J. Gordon, Esq. Secretary to Committee of Tea Culture.]

The most productive tea districts in China, according to all accounts, lie in the maritime provinces of Fokien, Kyanti, and Kyang-nau, chiefly between 27° 30' and 31° N. lat. and long. 112° to 117°. One kind, Lungau-cha (a superior sort of Hyson) is said by the Jesuit missionaries to be produced so high north as 38° and E. long 100°, and another, Paeulcha, brought from the province of Yunnan, is said to be procured from mountains in the lat. of 25° on the frontiers of Ava and Pegu. The tea plant is grown on the sloping sides of mountains or in valleys, but chiefly at the foot of mountains. It is also produced in level tracts, but less advantageously. Besides the explicit information given by Dr. ABEL, from actual examination of one district, it is sufficiently certain that the rock formations in most of the tea districts, are chiefly primary, from their being productive of metals which are only found in such formations. The best tea soils are said to be light, gravelly, sandy, and whitish (blanchatre in DUHALDE, probably calcareous), with little accumulation of vegetable mould. LE COMTE says, the best Tea is produced in a gravelly soil, the next best in a light or sandy soil, and the inferior in a yellow (jaune, probably clayey) soil. It is admitted on all hands that the tea plant thrives best with an open exposure to the south.

The climate of the whole of China is remarkable in respect of temperature, and it must be duly weighed when the acclimatization of any of its peculiar vegetable productions in another country is concerned. Latitude alone is here no guide, the mean annual heat being much under what is observed in most other countries at an equal distance from the equator. Pekin, lat. 39° 54′, nearly at the level of the sea, has a mean annual temperature of 54.86; calculated for the latitude theoretically by a formula* of very general application for the distribution of heat according to latitude without reference to other modifying causes, we get 62° 5' ;;—a difference of about 7°. 5 above the observed mean temperature of the year. But it is in the excesses of the summer and winter seasons that the climate is most remarkable. It has a winter temperature of 26.42, or nearly that of Upsal in lat. 59° 51′ (20° further north) and a summer heat of 82°.58. Its winter climate is that of Copenhagen, and its summer heats are as scorching as at Cairo. Between the mean temperature of the hottest month in summer and the coldest of winter, there is a difference of not less than 59° of Fahr., a climate of excesses almost without parallel in any part of the globe except Quebec in Canada. This condition, which is owing to the vast accumulation of land, extending from the arctic pole on through eastern Asia to China, is not confined to the northern provinces. It extends to Canton within the tropic, but modified there by the equalizing effect of a now tropical ocean about it. The mean annual heat of Canton, lat. 22° 10′, calculated theoretically for this latitude, gives 75°.5, Fahr. ; reduced from a register in the Transactions of the Medical Society of Calcutta, the observed mean temperature is 73° nearly. The mean of the coldest winter month is 54°; of the hottest summer month 85°.5. I am not aware that any determination has been made of the climate in the provinces between Pekin and Canton, and I have not access to the later writers on China. But an approximation may be made to the temperature of the tea districts from the facts known regarding Pekin and Canton. Assuming that the most productive tea districts extend from 27° to 31° N. lat. and taking 29° as the central tract, by calculation for this latitude we get 71° Fahr. for the mean annual heat at the level of the sea. Assuming further, that the refrigerating influences on the climate of China, which have been seen to be 7°.5 at Pekin and 2°.5 at Canton, amount to 5° Fahr. in the parallel of 29° lat., and deducting this from 71°, we get 66° for the mean annual temperature. The elevation of the tracts of tea cultivation above the sea will form another abatement on this sum. But on this point I have no grounds to form any thing like a precise * Mean temperature-81 Cos. Lat.

† Vol 6th, by Mr. PEARSON.

conclusion. It is stated by DUHALDE that the tract from which one of the finest green teas, Song-lo-cha, is brought is a mountain in the district of Whey-choo-foo of the province Kyang-nau, of no great height or extent (peu de hauteur et d'etendue). Supposing that the Tea cultivation reaches the height of 3000 feet above the sea, and making a reduction for this altitude, the resulting mean temperature might be a range of 56° to 64°. What the range of temperature between the cold of winter and the heat of summer is, it may be difficult to say. The heat of summer cannot be less than at Pekin, which is 10° higher north : and it has been seen that the difference between a summer and a winter month at Canton within the tropic is 30°, while at Pekin N. lat. 40°, it is 59° Fahr.; it may therefore be assumed that in the lat. of 28• the range of the thermometer from the mean of summer to that of winter is not less than 40° Fahr.

In regard to the moisture of the climate, there is little precise information, and what is known is chiefly as confined to Canton. The rains are not regularly periodical, as is the case on this side of the continent of Asia, within the same parallels; rain seems to fall all months of the year, although heaviest from August till October. The mean fall of rain, as entered in the above quoted Canton register, is for 1829, 42 inches; 1830, 50 inches; 1831, 70 inches. Average of the three years 56 inches. In the tea districts the quantity must be less, excepting at the greater elevations. At the northern limit, snow falls abundantly during the winter. At the southern limit, in the province of Canton, where large quantities of the inferior teas are produced, snow is never seen. It is probable that it falls occasionally in the centre districts on the higher elevations.

The circumstances of climate therefore, in regard of temperature and moisture, under which the tea plant is cultivated in China, may be stated thus: that the tea is produced, over an extent of country where the mean annual heat ranges from 73° to 54° 5' Fahr.: where the heat of summer does not descend below 80°, and the cold of winter ranges from 54° to 26°; where the difference between summer and winter heat is on the northern limit 59°, and on the southern 30° Fahr.; that it is cultivated in highest perfection where the mean annual heat ranges from 56° to 64°. That rain falls in all months of the year, and that the moisture of the climate is on the whole moderate.

The foregoing remarks will apply in a great measure to Japan, in some parts of which excellent teas are produced. Without entering on details, it may be sufficient to say, that at Nangosa-ki the mean temperature of the year is 60°.8; the greatest observed heat in summer, 98°; the temperature of January, the coldest month, 35°; that rain falls