288 — 



Perhaps this explains the fact that Camellia Sasanqua lias beén planted 

 about 1880 by Chinese on some tea estâtes in West-Java, a. o. Parakan- 

 salak and Moendjoel, with the commentary that this plant yielded a very 

 superior tea, or something to that effect. This was taken in the sensé that 

 it was a superior tea plant, and the plants were designated by the name 

 of «mandarine tea," as Mr. Boreel, head manager of Parakansalak, told me. 



Indeed the likeness with tea is great, as the branches in Fig. 12 

 will show, and for anybody ignoring other Camellia species it seems to 

 represent a separate form of China tea. The interest in this plant was 

 enhanced by the fact that during fermentation the young leaf developed 

 a distinct flavour of clove oil, which is already faintly discernible when 

 chewing the fresh leaf. 1 wanted to graft this interesting plant on tea stock, 

 as the manager told me that it yielded very little seed and could not be 

 propagated by layers. When previously Consulting literature however, I 

 perceived it was Camellia Sasanqua! 



Another botanist, to wit, 0. Warburg, has conimitted the same error, 

 and it is therefore that 1 mention this species at ail. Warburg visited 

 Java in 1886, and coUected at Parakansalak a branchlet „besonders feiner 

 aromatischer Thee, aber schwer fortzupflanzen", as the label of his No. 1 1380 

 (in the Berlin herbarium) runs. Kochs described this branchlet, that 

 bears no flowers, as Thea sinensis var parakansalakensis^). Comparinghis 

 figures with my statistical measurements 1 obtained a very sufficient 

 agreement, as the following table shows (I hâve to postpone the explanation 

 of the terms used hère): 



While thèse figures made it already very probable that my plant was 

 the selfsame as Kochs's „new variety", both cases moreover relating to some 

 plant considered at Parakansalak as a valuable curiosity, 1 attained certainty 

 only when 1 could examine Warburg's sample myself in Europe. In fact 

 it is the Camellia Sasanqua Thunb. of Parakansalak, wherewith Kochs's 

 variety „parakansalakensis" may be cancelled. 



Once knowing the plant, one will never mistake it for tea. The large 

 sessile flowers with pink, emarginate petals and the densely hairy ovary 

 with stout style, and likewise the thick pointed buds, so différent from 

 those in tea, allow an easy distinction. 



') J. Kochs 1900, p. 604. 



