The tea of Cochin China is considered inferior to that of China, being less strong and pleasant in flavour.

An inferior sort of tea, with a leaf twice or thrice as large as that of Bohea, grows wild in the hilly parts of Quang-ai, and is sold at from 12s. 6d. to 40s. the picul of 133lbs.

The Dutch have devoted much attention to tea cultivation in Java, and the plantations are in fine order.  Nearly a million lbs. of tea were shipped thence in 1848; but the tea is said to be of inferior quality, and grown and manufactured at considerable expense.

Japan produces both black and green tea.  The Japanese prefer the latter to the 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:—­