- 200 - 



for in fact the plants grow ,,in small patches", surrounded by thick 

 jungle, densely overshadowed. „A11 localities", Gf^iffith tells us (1838, 

 p. 103), ,,may be characterized as presenting an excess of humidity .... 

 „(They) are in every instance clothed with excessively thick tree jungle, 

 „the trees, in almost every case, being of moderate size." (See frontispiece.) 

 As for the flora in gênerai, the climate and altitude, they correspond very 

 well with the conditions found in the Chinese provinces Kiang-nan (at 

 présent Ngan-hwei) and Kiang-si, two well-known centres of tea cultiva- 

 tion. By the above considérations, Griffith and Me. Clelland were led 

 to the conclusion that Upper Assam was eminently suited for an experi- 

 ment with the cultivation of China tea! 



To modem critics, especially if acquainted with the disregard into 

 which China tea has fallen nowadays, this conclusion seems absurd, unin- 

 telligible, fatal. But let me try to justify those naturalists by showing that 

 they only applied the evolutionary ideas prévalent in those da'ys. The real 

 cause of their mistake was the universal conception of the essence of the 

 so-called ,,cultural varieties", and if they failed, they failed in good company! 

 How does it occur that plants and animais show that astonishing abundance 

 of différent forms, „cultural varieties', whereas their wild relatives scarcely 

 display any variability? This question, discussed at length by Charles 

 Darwin'), and revived by the expérimental research of the last twenty 

 years, is now recognized to be of a very intricate and multiple nature, 

 upon which I do not intend to dwell hère-). But in Griffith's days there 

 was but one answer: domestication effects changes in the wild organism, 

 which are partly inherited, and man is able to intensify thèse changes by careful 

 sélection during many générations. A crab apple, the supposed „ancestor" 

 of our orchard varieties, has uneatable fruits, but may be considerably 

 ameliorated by careful nursing, and among its ^exual offspring some indi- 

 vidual may occur with more palatable fruit; the rest of the development 

 into a high-quality apple is hypothetical, to be sure, but also plausiblel 

 On the other hand, the domesticated form, on being propagated by seed, 

 is known to give inferior descendants; a fact, now explained by ,,Mende- 

 lian", hybridization, ségrégation, phenomena, — but formerly thought to be 

 explained by the saying that ,,atavism", reversion to the wild stock, was 

 hère in question. 



The application of this supposée! state of things to the question, which 

 sort of tea plant should be experimented with in Assam, is évident. Griffith 

 himself, in his report (p 164— 166), gives the due to the enigma of his 

 advice. In the letter that called Gordon back from China, Wallich writes 

 the foUowing statement, reproduced by Griffith: ,,The genuine Tea grows 

 „there [that is: in Assam], or an indigenous plant which may be cultivated 

 „to any extent. There is no ground for supposing that the varions sorts of 

 ,,tea seeds imported from China, will produce any thing but the shrub in 



') Ch. Darwin 1859, 1867. 



2) In my dissertation I hâve dealt with the influence of domestication on morpholo- 

 gical characters. I refer to the interesting account in C. Fruwirth 1905, 1914. 



