34 CAMELLIA THEA 



about 1 or 1^ inch wide. Sepals 5, imbricate, slightly united 

 below, ovate or rounded, blunt, smooth, persistent. Petals usually 

 5, often more, up to 9, rather unequal, strongly imbricated, 

 rounded, concave, spreading, white, caducous. Stamens indefinite, 

 adherent to the petals at their base in two rows, filaments flexuose, 

 about half the length of the petals, anthers large, versatile. Ovary 

 small, free, conical, downy, 3-celled, with 3 or 4 pendulous ovules 

 in each cell ; styles three, distinct or combined at the base, 

 slender, with simple stigmas. Fruit a smooth, flattened, rounded- 

 trigonous, 3-celled capsule, with a thin, brown, woody pericarp 

 splitting loculicidally. Seed solitary in each cell, as large as a 

 small nut, rounded on the back with usually flattened sides 

 marked by impressions of the abortive ovules, testa hard, smooth, 

 cinnamon brown, brittle, the interior marked with ramifying vessels, 

 hilum large, nearly circular or oval, inner coat thin, pale brown ; 

 embryo straight, with large, thick, coalescent, unequal cotyledons, 

 and a very short radicle at the hilum ; no endosperm. 



Habitat. It is considered probable that the Tea-plant is really 

 native in Upper Assam, and that it was introduced into China in 

 very early times from India. Its cultivation on an immense scale is 

 now carried on in China, several parts of India (especially Assam), 

 Japan, Java, and the Southern United States. All botanists are now 

 agreed that the various kinds of tea are the product of a single 

 species, nor does it appear to vary so much as was formerly supposed. 

 In the case of a plant so long under cultivation, a considerable range 

 of form is to be expected. The cultivated races have in many 

 cases a much more stunted habit than the Assam plant, with 

 knotty branches, and the leaves frequently much smaller (f inch 

 long or even less), thicker and more obtuse. 



As regards TTiea as a genus distinct from Camellia, Seemann 

 was of opinion that they could be separated by the staminal 

 arrangement, but more recent writers have failed to find this 

 constant, and the persistent sepals and nodding flowers alone are 

 insufficient distinctions for generic definition. Seemann described 

 five species under Thea besides the Tea of commerce. Baillon 

 keeps the name Thea instead of Camellia for the combined genera. 



