THREE IMPERFCTLY KNOWN INDIAN TERNSTR@MIACER. 329 
to have been lost or never returned. In addition to this, there is 
occasional (though not perhaps serious) confusion anongst the 
remaining type specimens themselves. One of Wallich's names, 
for example, is represented by an Zxonanthes and a Gordonia, both 
of which are fastened to the same sheet. 
It would not have been needful to call attention to these diffi- 
culties, except for the purpose of pointing out that the determina- 
tions of the Wallichian types given by Choisy in his * Mémoire 
sur les Ternstroemiacées? cannot be relied upon. They appear, 
in fact, to have been based upon the specimens in the Hookerian 
herbarium, with no reference to the type collection. Choisy fell 
consequently into very great errors, to two of the most important 
of which I propose to call attention. 
Camellia? Scottiana, Wall. Cat. 3668. 
This plant is represented in Dr. Wallich's type collection by 
merely a couple of leaves, which had been sent from Munipur in 
a letter addressed by Mr. D. Scott to Mr. James Kidd, of Cal- 
eutta. The postscript is pinned to the sheet on which the leaves 
are fastened ; it states the belief of the writer that they belong 
to the Tea-plant, and supports this belief by the testimony of a 
Chinaman staying in the place. It is further suggested that “ it 
is perhaps the same species that Mr. Gardner sent down from 
Nypal.” Mr. Gardner appears to have sent specimens both of 
the true Tea from an introduced Chinese plant, and also of Ca- 
mellia Kissi, Wall., which, though quite distinct from the Tea- 
plant, appears to have been distinguished from it at first with 
some difficulty *. After careful examination I feel satisfied that 
Mr. Scott’s leaves belong to the Assam Tea-plant ; the late Dr. 
Anderson appears, from a MS. note in the Kew Herbarium, to 
have arrived at the same conclusion. 
The documents relating to the discovery of the Tea-plant in 
Assam are to be found in the *Journal of the Asiatie Society, 
vol. iv. The first is a letter from the Committee of Tea-culture, in 
which the Committee state that they “were acquainted with the 
fact that so far back as 1826 the late ingenious Mr. David Scott 
sent down from Munipore specimens of the leaves of a shrub 
which he insisted upon was the real Tea" (Z. c. p. 42). There 
is no date attached to the leaves in Dr. Wallich’s herbarium ; but 
* Asiat. Res. xiii. pp. 428 ef seq. 
