92 



TEA 



were sent for from China, when lo ! it was discovered that the 

 very plants, which were being ruthlessly destroyed to make 

 way for the new-comers, were in very truth tea-plants them- 

 selves, and that the hills of Assam were covered with them. 

 All unknown and forgotten they had been living and dying 



TEA PLANT 



there for 5 " centuries, while similar plants had been cherished 

 and cultivated in China. 



Cultivation. The tea-plant if left to itself, or grown for seed, 

 attains the size of an ordinary apple-tree, but when grown for 

 its leaves it is pruned flat every year to a height of four feet. 

 About eight weeks after pruning (i.e. towards the end of 

 February or the beginning of March) all over the bush fresh 

 young shoots, four or five inches long, sprout forth, and during 



