TEA. 



Came I ha The a Link. 



DR. ALBERT SCHNEIDER, 

 Northwestern University School of Pharmacy. 



The gentle fair on nervous tea relies, 

 Whilst gay good nature sparkles in her eyes. 



Crabbe: "Inebriety." 



THE highly esteemed drink re 

 ferred to in the above lines is 

 made from the leaves and, very 

 young terminal branches of a 

 shrub known as Camellia Thea. The 

 shrub is spreading, usually two or three 

 meters high, though it may attain a 

 height of nine or ten meters. It has 

 smooth, dark-green, alternate, irregu 

 larly serrate-dentate, lanceolate to obo- 

 vate, blunt-pointed, simple leaves. The 

 young leaves and branches are woolly 

 owing to the presence of numerous 

 hair-cells. The flowers are perfect, 

 solitary or in twos and threes in the 

 axils of the leaves. They are white 

 and rather showy. Some authors state 

 that they are fragrant, while others 

 state that they are practically odorless. 

 Stamens are numerous. The ovary is 

 three-celled, with one seed in each cell, 

 which is about the size of a cherry 

 seed. 



The tea-plant is no doubt a native of 

 India, upper Assam, from whence it 

 was early introduced into China, where 

 it is now cultivated on an immense 

 scale. It is, however, also extensively 

 cultivated in various parts of India, in 

 Japan, Java, Australia, Sicily, Corea, 

 and other tropical and subtropical 

 countries and islands. It is also culti 

 vated to some extent in the southern 

 United States, as in Carolina, Georgia, 

 Mississippi, and California, but appar 

 ently without any great success. The 



plant is extensively grown in green 

 houses and conservatories on account 

 of its beauty. 



According to a Japanese myth the 

 tea plant originated as follows: A very 

 pious follower of Buddha, Darma, 

 vowed that he would pray without 

 ceasing. He had prayed for some 

 years when finally the Evil One over 

 powered him and he fell asleep. When 

 he awoke he felt so chagrined and hu 

 miliated that he cut off both his eye 

 lids and threw them from him. From 

 the spot where they fell grew two 

 plants endowed with the property of 

 dispelling sleep. Chinese writers main 

 tain that priests of Buddha introduced 

 the plant from India. Some authori 

 ties are inclined to believe that the 

 plant is a native of China; others, that 

 it was brought from Corea to China 

 about the ninth century. 



Tea-drinking was supposed to have 

 been discovered by a servant of Em 

 peror Buttei, 150 B. C., but concern 

 ing this there is much uncertainty. It 

 is said to have been in use in Japan as 

 early as 729 of our era. The first 

 definite information about tea-con 

 sumption in China dates from the year 

 1 550, when a Persian merchant brought 

 tea from that country to Venice. At a 

 little later period we find tea mentioned 

 in various letters and documents of 

 travelers and merchants, yet it is evi 

 dent that it was a costly and rare 



155 



