— 290 — 



C. confusa. Henry wrote this important note on the label: „Leaves are 

 used as tea." I asked him for particulars, but he answered me that this 

 annotation „simply means that it is a „substitute "' for tea". Anyway, this 

 fact is of sufficient importance to examine the plant, if possible, in a liv- 

 ving state; who knows what it may lead to. 



For, besides the agreement in nanie (,,mieng"') wilh the Lao tea plant 

 and the substitution of tea in Yun-naii, there is one more remarkable fact 

 pointing in the same direction. I was namely struck by the likeness of 

 Henry's No. 12796 from Yun-nan to a Camellia growing in the isle of Hai- 

 nan, which has been found there by R. Swinhoe in 1870, by W. Hancock 

 in 1878 (No. 28, fig. 17) and by A. Henry in 1889 (No. 8249); ail thèse 

 plants are represented at Kew, the last-named also at Berlin. This likeness 

 is based especially on the leaves being more or less oôoya/e ') (not lanceo- 

 late as the type spécimen of C. confusa), while the flower diameter, the 

 appearance of fruit and seed, the emarginate petals, etc. equally are very 

 much the same; only, in the Yun-nan sample the styles are nearly free. 



Now in the 3^'^ chapter I recorded Hance's statement that in Hai-nan 

 there should exist wild-growing tea, yielding the „Lai tea" of the natives 2). 

 It is remarkable that three botanists hâve brought collections from Hai-nan 

 and that ail of them hâve goi one and the same Camellial It is then, in 

 my opinion, very likely that it is this Camellia of which the natives manu- 

 facture their tea, especially when we consider the facts known from Siam 

 and Yun-nan cited above. 



Certainly this species ought to be inquired into. 



D. Camellia H e n r y a n a mihi (fig. 15). 



In the valuable collection of Camellia's, collected by A. Henry in 

 Yun-nan, there are several plants that caiinot be located under the existing 

 species. Thus, f. i., No. 13551 (Kew and Berlin) has an uncertajn place; 

 likewise, No. 11052 (Kew) and No. 13318 (Kew and Berlin) are doubtlessly 

 new species; as however none of thèse three forms bears fruit, I do no think 

 it advisable to publish descripiions of them. It is a différent thing with the 

 nrs. 128.S3 and 10908 (Berlin and Kew), of which the fruit may be seen 

 at the Kew herbarium. The diagnosis of this new species, first published 

 by me in 1916 3), runs as follows: 



Camellia Henryana C. S. 



Tree or shrub, 3-7 meters in height. Branches for a long time coated 

 with soft erect, later adpressed hairs, bark brown; pubescence especially 

 conspicuous in buds and young shoots. Leaves ovate, with very long 



') At first sight this phenomenon prodiices the effect of reiationship with C. Crapnel- 

 liana from Hoiig-kong, but this effect is counteracted by the emarginate petals, the 

 leaf surface which is much more smooth than in Crapnelliana, and the styles which 

 hâve not fused in confusa. 



-) The Encyclopaedia Britannica 1910 says on this subject: ,,The aboriginal inhabitants 

 collect a kind of tea called fien ch'a, or celestial tea, wich looks like the leaves 

 of a wild Camellia, and has an earthy taste when infused." 



3) C. P. Cohen Stuart 1916, p. 132. 



