BOTANY, 303 



committee, consisting of Serres, Dumas, and Milne-Edwards, was ap- 

 pointed to examine the subject of the paper. They have reported that 

 " the facts contained in this memoir prove that, in the male organ of 

 plants and of animals, an ovule is formed, analogous to that of the fe- 

 males, and constituted in a like manner ; that the vitellus (the bag in- 

 terposed between the embryo and the albumen) divides, as docs that 

 of the female, and by the same mechanism, giving rise to the embry- 

 onary cells, which, after being modified by a special evolution, consti- 

 tute pollen-grains. Thus, there is an analogy, and often an identi- 

 ty, between the product of the male generative organs and that of the 

 female. On the other hand, there is an identity in the mode of for- 

 mation of the embryonary cells in the ovum of vegetables and of ani- 

 mals ; and lastly, the mechanism by which the embryonary cells of 

 the male ovule are formed is the same as that which forms the prima- 

 ry cells of the female ovum. Thus the phenomena of the division of 

 the vitellus, described among the vertebrata by Dumas, may be ex- 

 tended to vegetables in an equal degree." 



THE TEA CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



DR. JUNIUS SMITH has lately commenced the culture of the tea- 

 plant in the United States, with a view of deciding whether it can be 

 advantageously cultivated in this country. Others have often tried the 

 experiment by planting the seeds, but Dr. Smith has procured from 

 China a large number of plants of seven years' growth, which, at the 

 last accounts, were in full blossom. He selected Greenville, in South 

 Carolina, as the place where he would try the experiment, and in the 

 latter part of December, 1848, he set out his plants, five hundred in 

 number, all but five of which were perfectly healthy and vigorous. In a 

 pamphlet on this subject, published by Dr. Smith, he states that in 

 China the tea-plant grows most luxuriantly between the parallels of 

 20 and 45 north latitude. In the United States, he thinks that we 

 may assume the latitude of 40 as the northern, and the Gulf of Mexico 

 as the southern limits of the tea-growing districts. This would include 

 Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Virginia, parts of Ohio, Indiana, 

 Pennsylvania, and Missouri, and all the States south of these. The 

 northern portion of Newcastle county, in Delaware, is in the same par- 

 allel as Pekin, one of the finest tea-growing districts in China. The 

 annual consumption of tea in this country is about 11,000,000 pounds, 

 and, upon the supposition that the average product of an acre of land is 

 547 pounds, it will require the cultivation of 20,109 acres to supply the 

 present consumption, without allowing for the large annual increase. It 

 is well kno\vn that the tea-plant has been introduced into Brazil with 

 considerable success. Should Dr. Smith succeed in his laudable enter- 

 prise, we may hope in a few years to have tea of a flavor never before 

 tasted in this country. It is a notorious fact, that all tea loses by being 

 kept, and the finest" kinds will not at all bear to be transported across 

 the ocean. The reason why the tea used in Russia is so far superior to 

 that of any other country, except China, is, that it is transported over 

 land by means of large caravans. 



