18 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
the former being celebrated for their peculiar properties and the flowers of the other for their 
exceeding beauty, which obtains for them a place in almost every European green house. 
The two species here figured might, by careful cultivation, be almost made to compete with 
these in beauty, were it not for their great size, which disqualifies them for house culture, and 
they are too tender to stand a European winter, however well they might bear the summer 
temperature of Europe. Two other species, Chochlospermum gossipium and Eurya Wightiana> 
of this family are also found on the hills, and the latter so generally diffused, that I 
have met with it in almost every clump of Jungle from about 5,000 feet of elevation up, to 
the top of Dodabet. The aspect of this differs somewhat according to the situations it oc- 
cupies ; when found in woods, where it enjoys both shelter and rich soil, it attains the size of 
a considerable tree with long lanceolate leaves ; in open ground it has a stunted shrubby ap- 
pearance with shorter somewhat obvate leaves. These differences lead Arnott and myself to 
consider them distinct species, which a more intimate acquaintance with all their forms in a 
growing state does not confirm. 
The plants of this family are extensively distributed, being found in Asia, Tropical 
America, and, more sparingly, in Africa, probably owing to the flora of the last being less 
known than those of the other two. They seem, however, most abundant in the Phillippine 
Islands. When the first volume of De Candolle’s Prodromus was published in 1824, sixty- 
two species only were known, since then the number has been increased to about 200, a 
large proportion of which are from the Phillippine Islands, but many also from Tropical 
- America and Brazil. 
The long agitated question as to the origin of green and black ‘Tea has, I believe, 
been at length settled by the experience of the Assam Tea Company, proving that they are 
the produce of the same plant differently prepared. A new question has, however, arisen, 
which threatens for a time to engage the attention of Botanists, namely, whether the Chinese 
and Assam Tea plants are the same or different species, This is a question which one might 
suppose could be readily answered, but judging from occasional passing remarks I have seen 
in scientific periodical publications, it would appear otherwise. This, however, is a point on 
the discussion of which, I am not prepared to enter, as it would require for its thorough 
investigation, not merely perfect specimens of both plants but also an aquaintance 
with them as seen both under cultivation and in the wild state. J udging a priori, 
and without these data, I should infer they were the same originally, but that, under a long 
course of cultivation the Chinese one has at length become so altered in appearance that it 
caa no longer be recognised as the same thing, much in the same way as we find the crab 
become the golden pippin : or, as we find the large leaves of luxuriant mulberries dwindle 
imto small ones under the operation of daily picking, 
| It is a curious fact, ascertained through the investigations of modern Chemistry, 
that the peculiar vegetable principle from which Tea, Coffee, Coco and. Paraguay Tea 
derive their nutricious properties is nearly the same in all, and characterized by the large pro- 
