BOTANICAL DIFFERENCE. 317 



duced from the same variety, that variety being 

 the Thea Viridis."* 



What Mr. Fortune has proved is, that the plants 

 he saw in the province of Fokien, on some farms 

 about from thirty to forty miles north of the city 

 of Foo-chew-foo, corresponded with plants seen in 

 the province of Che Kiang. They were all alike, 

 of the species Thea Yiridis, — on comparison " no 

 difference was to be observed." f It is hardly 

 necessary again to point out to the reader that the 

 hills and plantations here alluded to were at least 

 150 miles from these Bohea districts, where the black 

 teas for foreig consumption are almost exclu- 

 sively made. The Chinese say that none of this 

 tea is produced south of Kien-yang-fu : however, I 

 believe some inferior kinds are procured from loca- 

 lities not far north of Kien-ning-fu, but none south 

 of that city. 



Still less can we accept the conclusion, that the 

 teas of the Ankoy district are the product of the 

 Thea Yiridis. J For it does not appear that this 

 district, which really does produce some of the teas 

 of commerce, or any other tea plantations in the 

 vicinity of Amoy, were visited by Mr. Fortune. 



Thus, the question whether there be a specific 

 difference or not between the black and green tea, 

 connected with foreign consumption, seems to me 

 still to remain an open question. 



* Wanderings in China, 2d edition, p. 189. 



t Ibid. p. 260. % Ibid. p. 220. 



