TEA 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



TEL 



651 



ornament among other evergreens; and where a disagreeable 

 object is to be concealed, no tree is more effectual ; and it 

 may be removed even after it has grown to a considerable 

 size. Propagation and Culture. Sow the berries in autumn 

 as soon as they are ripe, without clearing them from the 

 pulp, upon a shady bed of fresh undunged soil, covering 

 them about half an inch thick with the same earth. In the 

 spring, clear the bed carefully from weeds, and, if the season 

 prove dry, refresh the bed with water occasionally, to pro- 

 mote the growth of the seeds, many of which will come up 

 the same spring, but others will remain in the ground till the 

 autumn or spring following; but where the seeds are preserved 

 above ground until spring before they are sown, the plants 

 never come up until the year after. In this bed, constantly 

 well cleared from weeds, the plants may remain two years, 

 when they should be removed in autumn into a spot of fresh 

 undunged soil, divided into beds four or five feet wide. Set 

 them in rows a foot asunder, and six inches from each other, 

 observing to lay a little mulch upon the surface of the ground 

 about their roots, as also to water them in dry weather until 

 they have taken root; after which they will require no 

 further care, but to keep them clear from weeds in summer, 

 and to trim them according to the purpose for which they are 

 designed. In these beds they may remain two or three years, 

 according as they have grown, when they should be removed 

 in autumn into the nursery ; placing them in rows at three 

 feet distance, and the plants eighteen inches asunder in the 

 rows, and trimming them in the summer according to the 

 design for which they are intended. In three or four years 

 more, they may be transplanted where they are to remain, 

 observing always to remove them in autumn where the ground 

 is very dry, but on cold moist land it is better in the spring. 

 Mr. Boutcher advises that the seeds should be divested of 

 their pulp before they are sown. In this case, some will appear 

 in the following spring; but as these will be much the smaller 

 part, he recommends mixing the seeds with the earth till 

 spring. The Yew may likewise be propagated by cuttings 

 of one or two years' growth, planted in a shady border at the 

 beginning of April or the end of August: torn branches are 

 preferable for this purpose. In two years they will be fit 

 for removal to another nursery, where they may remain three 

 years, and soon, according to the size required. It is a very 

 slow-growing tree, but none may be more safely transplanted 

 when old ; so that you may at once form with it hedges seven 

 or eight feet high. Never clip them in autumn. 



2. Taxus Nucifera ; Acorn-bearing Yew. Leaves linear, 

 distant. A lofty tree, with many opposite scaly branches. 

 The fruit of this species resembles the acorns of the Oak, 

 and is astringent: it is eaten in deserts, and is said to be 

 very wholesome, and even laxative to the bowels, notwith- 

 standing its astringent taste. An oil expressed from it is 

 used in cookery; and the wood is in request among the 

 cabinet-makers. Native of the northern parts of Japan. 



3. Taxus Macrophylla; Long-leaved Yew. Leaves soli- 

 tary, lanceolate, remote; branches round, knotted from the 

 fallen leaves, flexuose, erect, ash-coloured, smooth ; flowers 

 among the leaves, axillary, dioacous. The wood is used by 

 the cabinet-makers. It flowers in June. Native of Japan 

 near Nagasaki. 



4. Taxus Verticillata; Whorl-leaved Yew. Leaves whorled, 

 linear, sickle-shaped; branches round, smooth, ash-coloured. 

 A tree with dense branches, gradually shorter upwards, like 

 a Cypress, three fathoms high. Native of Japan. 



Tea Buckthorn. See Rhamnus. 

 Tea Tree. See Thea. 

 Tea, New Jersey. See Ceanothus. 

 VOL. ii. 120. 



Tea, New Zealand. See Philadelphia. 



Tea, Oswego. See Monarda. 



Tea, West Indian. See Sida. 



Teak Tree. See Tectona. 



Teasel. See Dipsacus. 



Tectona; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, 

 bell-shaped, half five-cleft, permanent; segments ovate, from 

 upright spreading, obtuse. Corolla : one-petalled, funnel- 

 form, length of the calix; tube short; border five-cleft; seg- 

 ments spreading, ovate, externally tomentose. Stamina : 

 filamenta five, inserted into the orifice of the tube of the 

 corolla, very short; antheree globular, grooved, standing out. 

 Pistil: germen superior, ovate, very villose, girt with a short 

 pitcher-shaped gland ; style filiform, erect, a little longer 

 than the calix; stigma obtuse, two or three toothed; accord- 

 ing to Thunberg, two, revolute, obtuse. Pericarp : drupe 

 subglobular, depressed, five-lobed, rounded, four-cornered, 

 hirsute, corky-spongy, juiceless, concealed in the enlarged, 

 inflated, membranous calix. Seed: nut subglobular, termi- 

 nated by a round tubercle, four-ribbed, four-celled ; axils 

 bony, hollow within ; kernels compressed. Observe. The 

 terminal flowers are often six-cleft ; hence the genus is re- 

 ferred to the class Hexandria by Thunberg. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Corolla : five-cleft. Stigma: toothed. Drupe: 



dry, spongy, within the inflated calix. Nut: four-celled. 



The only known species is, 



1. Tectona Grandis; Teak Tree, or Indian Oak. Leaves 

 opposite, spreading, ovate, a little scolloped, above scabrous, 

 beneath covered with soft white down ; flowers small, white, 

 very numerous, fragrant; trunk erect, growing to an immense 

 size ; bark ash-coloured ; branches cross-armed, numerous, 

 spreading; young shoots four-sided; sides channelled ; nut ' 

 exceedingly hard, four-celled. The wood of this tree has by 

 long experience been found to be the most useful timber in 

 Asia. It is light, easily worked, and, though porous, at the 

 same time both strong and durable. That which grows near the 

 banks of the Godavery is beautifully veined, and much closer 

 grained. Pegu produces the largest quantity ; the large rivers 

 there enable the natives to bring it down to the sea-ports from, 

 the interior mountainous parts of the country where it grows, 

 at a cheap rate, which enables them to sell it lower than in any 

 other part of India. The trade between Calcutta, Madras, 

 and Rangoon, is principally for Teak timber, without which 

 a durable vessel cannot be built in Bengal. For ship-building, 

 it is manifestly superior to every other sort of wood, being light, 

 strong, and very durable, either in or out of water. During 

 the last thirty years it has been gradually rising into general 

 esteem for naval architecture, and very recently the finest 

 men-of-war, and Indiamen of the largest class, have been built 

 entirely of this excellent timber-tree, and sent to England as 

 specimens ; where the best judges have pronounced both the 

 materials and the workmanship, especially the former, to be 

 equal, if not superior, to any thing which has yet been seen 

 on the river Tljame*. For men-of-war it is particularly desi- 

 rable, being wholly free from that fatal liability to splinter, 

 by which English Oak has long been more destructive to our 

 brave naval defenders, than the common balls of their anta- 

 gonists. Native of the vast forests in Java and Ceylon, 

 Malabar, Coromandel, Pegu, Ava, the coast of Cochin-china, 

 and of Cambodia. On the coast of Coromandel it flowers in 

 the hot season, and the seed is ripe in August and Sep- 

 tember. 



Telephium; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Trigy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth five-leaved ; 

 leaflets oblong, obtuse, concave, keeled, length of the corolla 

 8C 



