404 DICTIONARY OF POPULAR NAMES TAWHAI 



Tawhai, or New Zealand Beech, a name in Xew Zealand 

 for Fagus fusca, a tree of the Oak family (Cupuliferae), 60 to 90 

 feet high and 5 to 8 feet in diameter. The wood is very tough, 

 hard, and durable, and is much used at Wellington. 



Tea, the Chinese name for the dried leaves of two evergreen 

 shrubs, named by Linnaeus Thea holica and T. viridis, of the 

 Tea Tree family (Ternstroemiacete), both wild and extensively 

 cultivated throughout the Chinese Empire and Japan. A third 

 species, T. assamica, native of Assam, has been added. Modern 

 botanists, however, consider these to be only varieties of one 

 species, especially the first two, now known by the name of 

 T. cJmiensis, or still more recently as that of Camellia Thea. 

 The Assam form is, however, perhaps distinct ; it assumes the 

 character of a tree, and has longer leaves. A beverage made by 

 an infusion of the leaves in water has been in use by the 

 Chinese from time immemoriaL It was first introduced into 

 Europe by the Dutch in 1610. Pepys in his Diary records 

 having drunk a "cup of tea" on 25th September 1660. Six 

 years later its price was 60s. a pound, and was imported from 

 Holland ; it was first imported from China by the East India 

 Compan}" in 1669. In 1725 the price of black tea was 13s. to 

 20s. per pound, and of green 12s. to 30s. Its consumption 

 continued yearly to increase, but it was not till the end of the 

 last or the beginning of the present century that it came into 

 general use as a beverage in this country. In 1800 the quantity 

 imported into England amounted to 23,723,000 lbs., and in 

 1880 to 208,404,333 lbs. Tea was early subject to an import 

 duty, the consequence of which was that during the first half of 

 the present century the average retail price of common black 

 tea was between 6s. and 8s. per pound. This high price led to 

 the manufacture of spurious tea in this country, chiefly from 

 the leaves of the sloe, willow, and other tea -leaved-like plants, 

 which being mixed with re-dried and spent tea leaves, to which 

 was added a little genuine tea to give scent, its sale gave em- 

 ployment to a considerable number of itinerant tea packmen. 

 The duty having been reduced from 2s. 2d. per pound to Is., 



