146 



The World's Commercial Products 



luxuriance in Assam, greater, it is said, than that attained in any part of the Celestial Kingdom ; 

 and, arguing that in its natural home a plant reaches its greatest development, supporters 

 of this view maintain that it is in Assam and not in China that we are to look for the home 

 of tea. It by no means follows, however, that the reasoning of this argument is sound, for 

 it has been repeatedly noticed 

 that plants introduced into 

 new countries where con- 

 ditions seemed favourable for 

 their growth have flourished 

 so well that their luxuriance 

 rivalled that of the plants 

 growing in the land admitted 

 to be their home^j Support 

 for the opposite view is 

 sought in a Japanese legend 

 which ascribes to China the 

 honour of being the home of 

 the tea plant ; but, unfortu- 

 nately, there is evidence for 

 supposing that the Chinese 

 never heard of this legend 

 except from foreign sources, 

 although the events related 

 occurred in their own coun- 

 try. ("There are, however, 

 certain references to the 

 plant in the writings of a 

 Celestial author who lived 

 about 2,700 B.C., and a 

 Chinese commentator of this £i 

 ancient author, writing in 

 the fourth century B.C., calls 

 attention to the mention of 

 the plant, and adds that a 

 beverage could be obtained 

 from the leaves by adding 

 hot water. It appears that 

 the plant was used entirely 

 as a medicine until 500 a.d., 

 when it became a popular 

 beverage. 



De_Candolle, however, in 

 summing up the evidence on both sides, attaches considerable weight to the fact that 

 apparently wild specimens of tea have been found by travellers in Upper Assam and in the 

 province of Cochar, and adds that " the tea plant must be wild in the mountainous region * 

 which separates the plains of India from those of China" ; he, however, regards the evidence as *■- 

 tending to prove that the use of the leaves was introduced into India from the^lartrteT~CTJ^^fy^A 



Much more certain information naturally exists as to the date of the introduction of the 

 product into Europe. There is a story which states that a package of a commodity hitherto 

 unknown was received by an old couple in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 

 and that, instead of infusing the leaves and using the extract, they threw away the coloured 



PLUCKING TEA 



