THE TEA PLANT 



CAMELLIA 



THEA 



Varieties 



planters have deplored the day when the so-called Chinese tea plant was brought 

 to India. At present no planter would for a moment dream of planting China 

 tea, few would even grow the hybrid, while the majority would cultivate but 

 one only of the several so-called indigenous stocks. The China plants imported 

 in the early years of the industry still exist, however, and have furnished the 

 seed for a considerable part of the present tea area. In consequence of the 

 crossing of the Indian and Chinese plants there has come into existence the ex- 

 tensive series of so-called hybrids. Perhaps the clearest conception may, there- 

 fore, be obtained by an attempt to classify the forms, as near as may be possible, 

 on botanical standards. 



In a paper read by me before the Royal Horticultural Society (to which 

 reference has already been made) I have given my views in some detail. Link 

 (I.e. ii., 73) was the first botanist who definitely placed the tea plant under the 

 genus <.'<( e'lict, and as already observed he recognised two forms, viz. <-'. Then 

 and <*. I'iriiii*. There would seem, however, no great advantage in regarding 

 the forms indicated as anything more than varieties if not cultivated states of 

 one species. Thus : 



Assam Tea. Camellia Thea, Unh, Var. (a) vlridis ; Thea viridis, Linn., Sp. PL, 1762, 735; 



Green Tea, Lettsom, Nat. Hist. Tea Tree, 1799, pi. 1 ; T. viridis, Hayne, 

 Gewiichse, 1821, vii., pi. 29 ; Booth, Trans. Hort. Soc. London, 1830, vii., 558 ; 

 T. assamica, Masters, Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind., iii., 1844> 63 ; Assam Tea, 

 Wall., Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 1835, iv., 48, pi. 2 ; C. ? Scottiana, Wall., Cat., 

 3668; Thistleton-Dyer, Journ. Linn. Soc., 1873, xiii., 329; etc., etc. 



Under this I assort the following races and cultivated states : 



1. Assam Indigenous This has the mature leaf ranging from 6 to 7| 

 inches in length, and from 2$ to 2|- inches in breadth. It contains about 16 

 veins on each side of the midrib. In passing it may be here observed that the 

 value of the number and condition of the veins in the classification of the culti- 

 vated races of tea, was first pointed out in the Pests and Blights of the Tea Plant 

 (ed. 1898, 15, 469). But there are numerous subraces of the Assam stock, 

 such as the Single, Bazelona, etc. Collectively they are the most highly prized 

 and most widely cultivated of all the Indian forms of the tea plant. It is, how- 

 ever, somewhat curious to read in Ovington's Voyage to Suratt (1689, 308) that 

 three kinds of tea were in his time conveyed from China to India, namely, " Bing, 



Single. Singlo and Bohe." This is apparently the first mention by a European writer 



of " Singlo," and the surmise naturally arises, how came that name to be given 

 to one of the best of the Assam indigenous plants ? 



2. Lushai. Sometimes called " Cachar Indigenous " or " Light-leaved 

 Manipur." Under favourable conditions this forms the largest leaf of all the 

 Indian tea plants. It has been measured from 12 to 14 by 7 inches and 

 recorded as possessing from 20 to 24 veins. It is not found wild outside the 

 Lushai hills and South Cachar. It is a rather delicate plant and will not safely 

 bear the hard pruning which may be given with impunity to other teas. 



3. Naga Tea. This has a long, narrow leaf, generally from 6 to 9 by 2 to 

 3 inches, with as a rule from 16 to 18 veins. It is very little cultivated except 

 in one or two gardens on the borders of the Naga hills, such as Amguri, but is 

 reported to be often used as a crossing stock. 



4. Manipur. This is the wild tea of the Native State of that name. It exists 

 there purely and simply as a forest plant, the seed of which, but not the leaf, is 

 valued. It is now grown fairly extensively in Cachar and some parts of Assam. 

 It is a larger, coarser and broader-leaved plant than the Assam indigenous. The 

 average mature leaf is from 6 to 8 inches in length and 2 to 3 inches in 

 breadth and usually contains 22 veins. 



5. Burma and Shan Too little is known of these teas to allow of their 

 critical separation from the Manipur plant. The leaves are smaller, thicker, 

 more acutely serrated and distinctly more elliptic in shape than with the other 

 teas. The plant in question has possibly been grown for centuries more as a 

 vegetable than as a source of the beverage. This circumstance may be found 

 to have produced properties with which we are at present not familiar. (See 

 p. 235 under Letpet. ) 



6. Yunnan and China. Fortune (Three Years' Wanderings in China, 1847, 

 68) speaks of the country south of the Yang-tse-Kiang as the region of Chinese 

 T. i-ii-itiifi. the tea being shipped from Shanghai and Ningpo. Crawford (Journ. 

 Emb. to Siam and Cochin-China, 1830, ii., 264) speaks of the plant seen by 

 him having leaves " twice or three times the size of that of Bohea tea.' ? 



