48 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



were in the first instance produced by the inoculation, when 

 close together, of the pollen of one kind into the flower of the 

 other, and the result was a true hybrid, partaking equally of 

 the indigenous and China characteristics ; but the process was 

 repeated again and again between the said hybrid and an 

 indigenous or China, and again later between hybrids of 

 different degrees, so that now there are very many varieties of 

 the Tea plant, 100 or even more, and no garden is wholly indi- 

 genous or wholly China. So close do the varieties run, no 

 one can draw the line and say where the China becomes a 

 hybrid, the hybrid an indigenous. Though as a rule the young 

 leaves are light green or dark green, as the plant approaches 

 the indigenous or China in its character, there are a certain 

 class of bushes all hybrid, whose young leaves have strong 

 shades of crimson and purple. Some even are quite red, others 

 quite purple. These colours do not last as the leaf hardens, 

 and the matured leaves of these plants do not differ from 

 others. Plants with these coloured leaves are prolific. 



The nearer each plant approaches the indigenous the higher 

 its class and excellence, ergo one plantation is composed of a 

 much better class of plants than another. Had China seed 

 never been introduced into India, a very different state of 

 things would have existed now. The cultivation would not 

 have been so large, but far more valuable. The propagation and 

 rearing of the indigenous, as observed, is difficult ; the China is 

 much hardier while young. So difficult is it to rear successively 

 the pure indigenous, perhaps the best plan, were it all to come 

 over again, would be to propagate a high class hybrid and 

 distribute it, never allowing any China seed or plants to leave 

 the nursery, which should have been a Government one. But 

 we must take things as they are. The Government nurseries 

 in the Himalayas and the Dehra Dhoon (there have never 

 been any elsewhere, and worse sites could not have been chosen) 

 were planted entirely with China seeds, the seedlings distri- 



