144 



The World's Commercial Products 



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TEA 



|Tea, as everyone knows, is prepared from the young leaves of the tea plant, Camellia Thea 

 (Thea sinensis), a shrub belonging to the natural order Theaceae, and extensively cultivated in 

 China, India, and Ceylon, and, to a less extent, in certain other countries^ Under the name- 

 of Thea sinensis, the Swedish botanist, Linnaeus, originally described tea as a single species, 

 but later it became known that two distinct plants were cultivated in China, which he named 

 T. viridis and T. Bohea. These two species were long thought to be the origin of green and 

 black teas respectively. No strictly wild plants have been found in China, but an indigenous 

 tea-tree, Thea assamica (or, as it is now called, Camellia Thea) occurs in Assam, and is generally 

 regarded by botanists as the parent species of all cultivated forms. 



Cfhe tea plant is a bushy shrub, which when left to its natural habit of growth and not 

 subjected to the vigorous prunings necessary for its successful cultivation, attains the height 

 of a small tree. The leaves vary considerably in size and shape, according to the variety ,_ 

 but are leathery, alternate, and generally elliptical or lanceolate, with a toothed margin. Oil 

 glands occur in the substance of the leaf and contain an essential oil to which the flavour 

 of tea is largely due. The under surface of the young leaves is thickly covered with fine 

 hairs which entirely disappear with advancing age. The beautiful white or rose-coloured ^ 

 slightly fragrant, flowers occur either singly or in clusters in the axils of the leaves ; they 

 '. are succeeded by more or less globular fruits consisting of capsules composed of three 

 compartments, usually with only one seed in each compartment) 



The question as to the original home of the tea plant is by no= 

 means settled, the point at issue being whether, after all, the 

 true home of the plant is in the country naturally 

 associated with it, viz., China, or in the neigh- 

 bouring Indian province of Assam. The 

 evidence in support of the latter 

 contention is largely based 

 upon the fact that the 

 tea plant attains 

 extraordinary 



A HILL-SIDE PLANTATION 



