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, spirae, 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.

4th.  Concluding Suggestions.—­Having shown that tea can be grown in the Himalayas, and that it would produce a valuable and remunerative crop, the next great object appears to be the production of superior tea, by means of fine varieties and improved cultivation.  It is well known that a variety of the tea plant existed in the southern parts of China from which inferior teas only were made.  That, being more easily procured than the fine northern varieties, from which the great mass of the best teas are made, was the variety originally sent to India.  From it all those in the Government plantations have sprung.

It was to remedy this, and to obtain the best varieties from those districts which furnish the trees of commerce, that induced the Honourable Court of Directors to send me to China in 1848.  Another object was to obtain some good manufacturers and implements from the same districts.  As the result of this mission, nearly twenty thousand plants from the best black and green tea countries of Central China, have been introduced to the Himalayas.  Six first-rate manufacturers, two lead men, and a large supply of implements from the celebrated Hwuy-chow districts were also brought round and safely located on the Government plantations in the hills.

A great step has thus been gained towards