PEA. VINE. 



131 



93. Most botanists place in this 

 family the tea-plant (fig. K>8) 

 Camellia (from Camellus or 

 Kamel, the name of a Jesuit bota- 

 nist). This remarkable genus fur- 

 nishes the domestic tea in universal 

 use, and flowering trees and shrubs 

 which are universally admired. 

 There are two species, the Camel' 

 lia bohe'a, and the Camel 'Ha viri- 

 dis, which furnish tea. This article 

 is prepared with great care, and 

 considerable labour. The leaves 

 are carefully picked one by one; 

 dried in shallow, iron pans, over a 

 slow fire ; exposed to the air, fre- 

 quently turned, and finally passed 

 through a winnowing machine, such 

 as is commonly used by our farmers 

 for wheat, &c. In this way the 

 kinds of tea are separated, the 

 lightest falling farthest from " the 

 fan ;" the first and the heaviest is 

 the " imperial," next the young 

 hyson, then gunpowder, and so on. 



Both green and black tea are said to be from the same plant 

 but the green tea is longest over the fire. Rusckenberger^a 

 Voyage round tJie World. 



94. The VINI'FEKJE, or VITES, or AMPELLI'DFJE, form 

 another natural family closely resembling the preceding, which 

 belongs to the same class ; it is composed of bushes or sarment- 

 ous (trailing or climbing) shrubs, which support 

 themselves by tendrils growing in the place of the 



peduncles; with simple or digitate, alter- 

 nate leaves, having two stipules at the 

 base, and small greenish flowers ar- 

 ranged in racemes opposite to the leaves ; 

 calyx very short, and the corolla com- 

 posed of five petals, and five stamens 

 opposite to the petals ; the fruit is a 

 Flo- 159 globular berry containing from one to 

 VINE. four seeds. Annexed are representations 



93. To what family does the tea-plant belong ? What is the genus of the 

 tea-plant? Where does it grow? 



94. What are the characters of the family Viniferae? How many species 

 of vine are cultivated in France ? What are raisins ? What are currants * 



Fig. 158. TEA-PLANT. 



