— 269 — 



„Sir D. Prain lias itiformed the writer that thc only spécimens of 

 „genuine wild tea of a large-leaved type seen by hiiii corne from the 

 „Lushai country; Maiiipiir, where ttie plant was coUected by Sir George 

 „Watt; and the Barel Range where he has personally seen the plant but 

 „where it appears to be extremely rare. 



„This tea of a large-leaved type Prain believes to be différent 

 „from the wild tea obtained by Griffith in 1836 in the Pat Koi Range'). 

 „Prain however has found himself unable to distinguish between the 

 „speciniens collected by Griffith and those brought by Pottinger froni 

 „the Kachin Hills-'). Prain further believes that the Pat Koi and Kachin 

 „specimens agrée with those of the P'u-èrh Tea of Southwestern Yunnan 

 „sent to Calcutta from Kew, and that the spécimens of tea received at 

 „Calcutta from the Shan country agrée with those of the Pat Koi and the 

 „Kachin hills." 



The view expounded in the above statement confirms the idea set 

 forth already in the second and fourth chapters, to wit, that the Assam 

 tea plant discovered in 1835 is much more related to the Burma, Shan 

 and Yun-nan races (compare the „mieng" plant from Siam, Fig. 9) than 

 to the large-leaved Manipur and Lushai types, which are generally mixed 

 up with „Assam Indigenous". Besides, it very nicely suppléments the 

 System composed by Sir Watt, since the Shan types, insufficiently known 

 by this author, are referred by Sir Prain to the Assam race, which was 

 not yet separated from the other Indian types by Watt. 



To conclude our enumeration of authors, we hâve to quote Eberhardt ^), 

 the discoverer of two most remarkable tea plants of a small-leaved and a 

 large-leaved race, growing almost side by side in Tong-king. 



The former, Mr. Eberhardt says, has small leaves, ,, d'une tonalité 

 „sombre", 80 mM. in length, 35 in diameter, with a pétiole 4 niM. long. 

 „Ces feuilles sont oblongues lancéolées acuminées et de plus, aiguës 

 „à la base, elles présentent des dents très fines, réparties d'égale 

 „façon sur toute la bordure du limbe jusqu'à environ 1 centimètre du 

 «point d'attache de ce dernier sur le pétiole; elles sont coriaces, et. cela 

 „dès le début de leur évolution. Sur certaines d'entre elles, les dentelures 

 „se rapprochent encore davantage de la base du limbe et donnent à 

 «première vue, l'illusion qu'elles se poursuivent jusqu'au point d'attache. 

 „Les fleurs et les fruits, dont j'ai pu recueillir quelques échantillons, ont 



') „Naga tribes other than the Angami occiipy the mountains north-east of the Barel 

 ..Range as far as the soiith-west and of the Pat Koi range." 



-) ..It should be noted that PottiNGER"s spécimens were from a cultivatcd plant and 

 ..that we hâve only his judgment to rely upon for the conclusion that the two cul- 

 ..tivated p'ants at Lammuk were the same as the wild ones he observed at Shigu 

 „Ferry and elsewhere in the Kachin country." Hence it appears the possibility is 

 not excluded that those wild plants were in reality of a différent type. Moreover, 

 as we will remember, in the 2nd chapter we were led to the conclusion that Lam- 

 muk and Shigu Ferry were situated so close near each other as to awaken the sus- 

 picion that the latter tea type was no more wild than the former. 



3) Ph. Eberhardt 1907. See the first part of the présent paper, p. 216. 



