TEA. 261 



feet in height. The branches are alternate and numerous, 

 furnished with elliptical, oblong, lanceolated pointed leaves, 

 and serrated, with the exception of the base ; smooth on 

 both sides, shining, marked with a rib, and veined, sup- 

 ported alternately on short foot stalks, two or three inches 

 long, and about one wide. The flowers are sometimes 

 solitary, and in clusters of three occasionally, at the axiles 

 of the leaves, bearing a flower similar to the Myrtle, con- 

 sisting of a short green calyx with five lobes, the corolla 

 four or five, large snow white petals ; stamens numerous, 

 with yellow anthers connected at the base, and a pistil with 

 a three parted style. Fruit and capsule three celled. 

 How many varieties of the Tea plant exist is uncertain. 



The article imported as a beverage is picked from the 

 same plant at different seasons, and the different modes of 

 curing the leaves make their difference in the import- 

 ance and worth, rather than in being the proceeds of dif- 

 ferent varieties of plants. As an evergreen plant, the Tea 

 is certainly ornamental, and, like the Camellia, will bear 

 considerable frost. There is no doubt if this plant sported 

 in colors, like its prototype, the Camellia, k would be 

 equally as much propagated ; still it is deserving the foster- 

 ing care of lovers of ornamental shrubs. It is easily pro- 

 pagated by seed sown in the spring in a rich sandy loam. 

 When the seeds are up and two or more leaves appear, 

 they should be potted off carefully into the smallest size 

 pots, and when re-established, should be treated the same 

 as if full grown ; the third season the seedlings will, under 

 r- roper treatment, flower and bear fruit. 



