BOTANICAL DIFFERENCE. 321 



Europe, and were planted in the Botanic Garden 

 at Upsal. These, it appears from the edition of the 

 Sy sterna Vegetabilium, 1774, were of the Thea 

 Bohea, and the learned naturalist seems always to 

 have had a difficulty in discriminating his two 

 species. In the Amoenitates Academical, Vol. vii. 

 239. t. 4. (1765), it is said that the two species are 

 so alike, that they might be considered to be va- 

 rieties only ; and he there states that in the specific 

 difference founded on the number of petals, he had 

 been guided by the authority of Hill, and not by 

 his own experience. In an interleaved copy of 

 the Species Plantarum which may be seen at the 

 Linnoean Society's House, he has made frequent 

 alterations in his specific characters, and there is 

 much reason to think he never satisfied himself in 

 this respect. 



Loureiro, who saw the tea tree both in Cochin 

 China and at Canton, adopted the classification of 

 Linnaeus, making the specific difference to depend 

 upon the number of petals. He judiciously named 

 these plants after the places where he saw them — 

 Cochin Chinensis and Cantoniensis. But accord- 

 ing to the petalous classification, the Cantoniensis, 

 as it consists of seven, eight, and nine petals, ought, 

 agreeably to the Linnaean arrangement, to be the 

 green tea plant ; and probably was so considered 

 by Loureiro, as it has since been by many, if not 

 most botanists. (See Encyclopedic Methodique.) 



But if it were from the Honan plantations that 



Y 



