THE TEA FAMILY 



THEACE^ de Candolle 



HIS family comprises about i6 genera, with some 175 species of trees, 

 shrubs, and a few cUmbing vines, inhabiting the tropics and warmer 

 temperate regions of Asia and America and represented in our area 

 by 4 genera each with i species, 2 of which are arborescent. It is 

 very important economically on account of the Tea plant, Thea viridis Linnaeus, 

 native of southeastern Asia, the prepared leaves of which yield the well-known 

 beverage. Tea. Several members of this family are great favorites in the gardens 

 of warmer temperate regions and in conservatories, best known among these being 

 the CamelUa, Camellia japonica Linnaeus, now occurring in many varieties of 

 doubled and variously colored flowers. 



The TheacecB have alternate, usually simple, rarely digitately divided, per- 

 sistent or deciduous leaves without stipules. The flowers are usually large and 

 showy, perfect and regular, axillary and soHtary or sometimes in crowded racemes 

 or panicles, often subtended by several bracts. The calyx consists of 5, or rarely 

 4 to 7 imbricated sepals; the corolla divisions are the same in number, sometimes 

 slightly united, imbricated; the stamens are as many as there are corolla-segments 

 or several times as many, the filaments various; anthers erect or versatile, open- 

 ing lengthwise or by apical pores; the pistil consists of 3 to 5 united carpels; 

 ovary 3- to 5-celled, sometimes partially immersed in the receptacle; styles as 

 many as there are cells of the ovary or sometimes united; stigmas various; o\ailes 

 2 to many in each cavity. The fruit is a leathery or woody capsule ; seeds few to 

 many; endosperm usually wanting, or, if present, fleshy; embryo straight or obhque; 

 cotyledons flat or fluted. 



Our arborescent genera are: 



Leaves deciduous, membranous; flowers nearly sessile, capsules globose; seeds 

 angled. i- Franklinia. 



Leaves persistent, leathery; flowers on long pedicels; capsules ovoid; seeds 

 winged. 2. Gordonia. 



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