VARIETIES OF THE TEA PLANT. 49 



it stands to reason no one would grow the China who could 

 get indigenous. But the truth is, a pure specimen of either 

 is rare. The plants between indigenous and China are 

 called " hybrids." They were in the first instance produced 

 by the inoculation, when close together, of the pollen of 

 one kind into the flower of the other, and the result was a 

 true hybrid, partaking equally of the indigenous and China 

 characteristics ; but the process was repeated again and 

 again between the said hybrid and an indigenous or China, 

 and again later between hybrids of different degrees, so 

 that now there are very many varieties of the Tea plant 

 100 or even more and no garden is wholly indigenous or 

 wholly China. So close do the varieties run, no one can 

 draw the line and say where the China becomes a hybrid, 

 the hybrid an indigenous. Though as a rule the young 

 leaves are light green or dark green, as the plant approaches 

 the indigenous or China in its character, there are a certain 

 class of bushes all hybrid, whose young leaves have strong 

 shades of crimson and purple. Some even are quite red, 

 others quite purple. These colours do not last as the leaf 

 hardens, and the matured leaves of these plants do not 

 differ from others. Plants with these coloured leaves are 

 prolific. 



The nearer each plant approaches the indigenous, the 

 higher its class and excellence, ergo one plantation is com- 

 posed of a much better class of plants than another. Had 

 China seed never been introduced into India, a very different 

 state of things would have existed now. The cultivation 

 would not have been so large, but far more valuable. The 

 propagation and rearing of the indigenous, as observed, is 

 difficult ; the China is much hardier while young. So 

 difficult is it to rear successively the pure indigenous, 

 perhaps the best plan, were it all to come over again, would 

 be to propagate a high-class hybrid and distribute it, never 



