90 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



as Assam." I have italicized Henry's concluding statement, 

 with which I most emphatically agree. As recorded in Vol. I, 

 Chapter VIII, I discovered specimens of the Tea plant in north- 

 central Szechuan growing in situations which left no good reason 

 for regarding them as other than spontaneous. However, in 

 view of the long-cultivated character of this shrub I prefer to 

 regard them as " probably wild plants." It is worthy of note 

 that growing in the same locality I found wild plants of the 

 Tea Rose {Rosa indica) in some quantity. The Tea plant is an 

 evergreen, belonging to the rain-forest area of the temperate 

 zone in China. This represents the rice-belt throughout 

 the Yangtsze Valley, which has long since been cleared in aU 

 but the most precipitous places to make way for cultivation. 

 This fact would account for the present absence of the Tea 

 plant in a wild state in these regions. 



The great tea-growing districts for export trade with the 

 Occident and for consumption within China itself are in the 

 middle-eastern parts of the Empire. The export trade in this 

 commodity has declined enormously during the last quarter 

 of a century. Some 60 years ago the tea industry was intro- 

 duced as a business into India and Ceylon, with the result 

 that to-day these countries supply the greater portion of the 

 world's demand. Antiquated methods of cultivation and 

 preparation, absence of co-operation amongst the growers, 

 and heavy taxation, are responsible for the decline of the 

 Chinese product. It is true that Chinese tea is in quality 

 and delicacy of flavour far ahead of Indian and Ceylon teas, 

 but tea-drinkers generally have acquired a taste for the rougher, 

 dark - coloured teas, and China's conservative methods are 

 killing what was once her greatest export industry. Hankow 

 is to-day the great tea-mart of China, the trade being largely 

 in the hands of Russians. Large factories have been estab- 

 lished expressly for the purpose of preparing teas for the 

 Russian market, Indian and Ceylon teas being imported for 

 blending purposes. In 1910 the exports of tea from Hankow 

 were valued at Tls. 18,423,474. 



With the ordinary tea industry of eastern China we are 

 not further concerned, but in the west a specialized form of this 

 obtains which merits a detailed description. Tea is grown all 



