THIA CHINENSIS. 
THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS. 
Tura. Sepals, five-six rounded. Petals, six—nine ses- 
sile. Stamens, numerous. Capsule, three-celled, seven-valved, 
each cell containing one to two seeds, and opening at the upper 
part. 
Calyz, five or six-leaved. Corol., six or nine petalled. Capsule, three-seeded. 
THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS, 
Tuea Curensis. Leaves, alternate, smooth, ovate-oblong. 
Flowers, axillary, either single or aggregated on short glabrous 
peduncles. ; . 
Corolla, larger than the Calyx. Stamens numerous. Flowers, six-petalled. Leaves, 
oblong-oval, rugose. 
THE ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS. 
Crass Potyanpria. Stamens twenty or more, arising from the 
receptacle (hypogynous.) Orper Monocynta, Calyz imbricate 
in wstivation. ‘T'rees. 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
This genus derives its name from its Chinese appellation, 
and, in a commercial point of view, is one of the most im- 
portant of the vegetable kingdom. But, notwithstanding this 
importance, and the numerous notices of it and its cultivation, 
no little uncertainty exists whether it contains one or more 
species, or in other words, whether the black and the green teas 
are the product of the same or of different species: many mod- 
ern botanists, however, are of opinion that all are but varieties 
of one species, which is therefore named Taea CHINENSIS. 
Notwithstanding the many different kinds of Tea exported 
from China, there is good reason to believe that they are all the 
produce of one species (as has already been hinted), and that the 
_ differences of quality are the result of variations in the charac- 
_ ter of the plant, which are induced by differences of soil, cli- 
_ mate &c., in the extensive tract over which it is grown,—and of 
_ Variations in the age of the trees, the time of gathering the 
leaves, and in the mode of preparing them. The tea districts of 
* = 
