NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 277 



drupe. The leaves are ovate or oblong-ovate, broad and rounded at the base, some- 

 times almost subcordate, finely serrate, and three-ribbed. 



Extracts from the essay on Tea Culture, by the author of the fifth para- 

 graph above, have been introduced into the circular of the American Tea 

 Company ; the first of which is worded in the following manner : 



"The Tea-plant is thus described by botanists : 



" Thea viridis, Linn., Camellia t heifer a, Griff., Chinese Chah, Assamese 

 Fhalop. 



" The ordinary height of the cultivated plant is from three to six feet." 



This concise and very curious botanical description was, it appears, just 

 enough for the present purpose. Had the more detailed account of the plant, 

 given three years ago in the essay on Tea-culture, been reproduced in full, 

 m-re information would perhaps have been given than was intended. 



The second extract runs thus : " Botanically considered, the Tea-plant is a 

 single species ; the Green and the Black, with all the diversities of each, 

 being mere varieties produced by a difference in culture, qualities of the soil, 

 age of crops, &c." Evidently this extract is the corollary of one of the para- 

 graphs of the circular, in which the same author insinuates that, " although 

 the character of the American Tea-plant differs somewhat from the Chinese 

 variety, it is not greater than might be expected from the difference of climate 

 and soil of the two countries." 



I will inform the gentleman that difference of climate and soil, and even 

 difference of hemisphere, (although occasionally producing slight changes,) 

 will never transform a plant of the Camellia tribe into one of the Buckthorn 

 family. Referring to the leaf alone, " which," he says, " is the important part, 

 and almost identical with some of the varieties from which the best Assam tea 

 is made," I will add that, far from being almost identical, they are very differ- 

 ent ; the leaf of our Ceanothus being deciduous, of a thin texture, more or less 

 pubescent, strongly three-nerved, and rounded at the base ; whilst in all the va- 

 rieties of Thea viridis the leaf is thick, coriaceous, persistent, quite glabrous, with 

 a single feather- veined rib, and attenuated at the base. I must confess that the 

 remark of an almost identity of the leaves of our plant with those of the Chi- 

 nese Tea-plant, had induced me for a moment to suspect that the species Cea- 

 nothus Asiaticus, a plant indigenous to south-eastern Asia, and very similar to 

 our Ceanothus, was also used in Assam as an auxiliary, if not a substitute, to 

 Thea viridis. 



I have now done with the subject. My purpose was merely to discuss the 

 botanical value of the assertion of the originators of the American Tea Com- 

 pany, viz. : that the tea which they intend to offer to the public, was derived 

 from the " true Chinese Tea-plant, growing indigenously, luxuriantly, and 

 abundantly in our mountains," invisible, so far, to our numerous and active 

 botanists. I trust that I have convinced you of the fallacy of this assertion. 



I leave it now to the chemist to test the identity of chemical composition of 

 this American tea with the Chinese Chah, and ascertain whether the former 

 contains tannin, gluten, and thein, three of the principles which characterize 

 Thea viridis. 



Oct. 20th. 

 Mr. Vaux, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Twenty members present. 



The following were presented for publication : 



" Description of a new species of Pleurocera," " Description of two 

 new Mexican Land Shells/' and " Description of a new Teredo.'' By 

 George W. Tryon, Jr. 



1863.] 



