53 



CHAPTER X. 



TEA SEED. 



THOUGH there is a great difference in Tea plants (see last 

 Chapter) the seed of all is the same, and it is therefore 

 impossible to say from what class of plants it has been 

 gathered. 



When Tea seed was very valuable (it has sold in the Tea- 

 fever days as high as Rs. 200 and Rs. 300 per maund) it was 

 the object of planters to grow as much as possible. 



High class plants do not give much seed, a plantation 

 therefore with much on it should be avoided in purchasing 

 seed. 



The Tea flower (the germ of next year's seed) appears in 

 the autumn, and the seed is ripe at the end of the following 

 October or early November. 



It takes thus one year to form. 



Seed is ripe when the capsule becomes brown, and when 

 breaking the latter the inner brown covering of the seed 

 adheres to the seed and not to the capsule. 



One capsule contains I, 2, 3, and sometimes even 4 seeds. 



Though the mass ripens at the end of October, some ripen 

 earlier ; the capsule splits and the seed falls on the ground. If, 

 therefore, all the seed from a garden is required, it is well to 

 send round boys all October to pick up such seeds. 



When the seed is picked at the end of October or early 

 November the mass is still in capsules. It should be laid in 

 the sun for half an hour daily for two or three days until most 

 of the capsules have split. It is then shelled, and the clean seed 



