124 Ol'servations on Tea. 



served to convince me of the exactness of those of Kerapfer, 

 Thunbcrg, and Lettsom. " 



Tea is a branchy evergreen shrub, which, according to 

 Kempfer and Thunbevg, grov>'s to the height of five or six 

 feet, though other travellers assert that it rises sometimes to 

 thirty. 



Its leaves arc alternate, hard, oval, and elongated, or 

 elliptic ; of a somewhat shining green colour, entire near th$ 

 base, but serrated in the rest of their length, and supported 

 on a short and half-cylindric foot-stalk. The buttons are 

 acute, and accompanied with a husk, which detaches itself 

 and drops off at the period of their development. 



The flowers grow singly, or scmetime?, but more rarely, 

 two-and-two, in the eyes of the leaves, on short and some- 

 what thick pedicles. 



The calyx is small, persistent, and has five obtixse divi- 

 sions. 



The corolla, for the most part, has six white petals, 

 round and open : the two exterior ones are smaller an(^ 

 unequal. Its breadth is about three centimetres. 



The stamina, which arc more than two hundred in num- 

 ber, are shorter than the corolla, and attached under the 

 ovarium. Each anthera has two cells. 



The ovarium, which is of a rounded triangular form, and 

 surmounted by a style divided into three filiform stigmata, 

 becomes a capsule with three round monospermous cells 

 united at the base, and opening longitudinally on one side 

 only. 



The seeds are spherical, internally angular, of the size of 

 a filberd, covered with a thin shining pellicle, a little hard, 

 and of a maroon colour. The kernel is oily, and of a bitter 

 and disagreeable taste, which produces salivation, and even 

 occasions nausea. 



The tea often flowers in Europe, but it rarely fructifies. 

 It belongs to the order and class of the Polyandria vionogy- 

 via Linn.; and M. de .Jussieu has classed it in the family 

 of the orange trees next to the caim-iia. 



It is cultivated every where, from Canton to Pckin ; where 

 die winter, according to the observations of the missiona- 

 ries, is more severe than at Paris. It would, no Joubt, bo 

 possible to propagate this valuable plant in France, if one 

 could procure a sutficicnt number of individuals to make 

 CMperlments, by cultivating it in difierent scyls and under 

 dillerent climaies. Tins object deserves the attention of 

 j.overnment, as the consumption of tea is immense, and as 

 ;Ue qi, .unity imported every year amounts to a considerable 



suni;, 



