56 TEA 



of the green-tea industry, lie was still more pleased, 

 because here he saw that all the tea farms were planted 

 lip with Thea viridis. By the evidence of his own eyes 

 he had obtained " proof positive," he thought, that 

 the theory to which he had given his support as a 

 scientist was scientifically sound. And he journeyed 

 on into the province of Fukien, famous for its black 

 teas, fully expecting to find the tea farms there planted 

 up with Thea Bohea. Here is his own story, as told in 

 his book " Wanderings in China," of the extraordinary 

 discovery he made in Fukien, and of its bearing on the 

 theory which, up to this stage of his wanderings, he 

 seemed so conclusively to have proved : 



" Great was my surprise to find all the tea-plants on 

 the tea hills near Foochow exactly the same as those 

 in the green-tea districts of the north. Here were then 

 green- tea plantations on black- tea hills, and not a single 

 plant of the Thea Bohea to be seen. Moreover, at the 

 time of my visit, the natives were busily employed in 

 the manufacture of black teas. Although the specific 

 differences of the tea-plants were well known to me, I 

 was so much surprised, and I may add amused, at this 

 discovery, that I procured a set of specimens for the 

 herbarium, and also dug up a living plant, which I 

 took northward to Chekiang. On comparing it with 

 those which grow on the green-tea hills, no difference 

 whatever was observed. It appears, therefore, that 

 the black and green teas of the northern districts of 

 China (those districts in which the greatest part of the 

 teas for the foreign markets are made) are both pro- 

 duced from the same variety, and that that variety 

 is the Thea viridis, or what is commonly called the 

 green-tea plant. On the other hand, those black and 



