It was during the British era that tea first began to be cultivated and manufactured here. The story of "Ceylon Tea" began with Coffee, that had already been found growing naturally in the central hill country. The British Governor Sir Edward Barnes, a British Army Officer who served the country from 1820 - 1831 offered the official support for large scale coffee cultivation, such as land for cultivation, infrastructure like network of roads etc., and funds allocated for research & experiments in coffee growing. In the 1870's, coffee plantations were destroyed by a fungal disease called Hemileia Vastatrix, better known as coffee leaf disease. The death of the coffee industry paved the way to experimented with Cocoa and Cinchona as alternative crops but failed due to an infestation of a disease. In 1824, a tea plant was brought to Ceylon by a British from China and was planted in the royal Botanical Garden in Peradeniya for experimental purposes. Further, tea plants were brought from Assam and Calcutta in India to Peradeniya in 1839. The first commercial cultivation of Tea commenced in 1867 by the British replacing coffee, thereby paving the way to a crop which produce a beverage that would be loved and treasured by people all over the world.