( sath) 
Father Labat next thought he had difcovered the real. Tea- 
plant in Martinico’, asreeing, he fays, in all refpects with the 
China fort. He pretends alfo to have procured ‘Tea feeds from 
the Eaft Indies, and to have raifed the plant in America ; but, from 
his own account, this fuppofed Tea appears to be only a fpecies 
of Lyfimachia, or what is called Weft-India Tea *. 
Many other pretended difcoveries of the Oriental Tea-tree 
have been related ; all which have proved erroneous, when pro- 
perly enquired into. The genus of plant, called by Keempfer . 
Tfabakki?, has the neareft refemblance to it. The leaves of feveral 
European herbs have been ufed at different times as fubftitutes 
for Tea, either from fome fimilarity in the fhape of the leaves, 
or in the tafte and flavour ; among thefe, two or three fpecies of 
: Nouveau Voyage aux Iles d Y'Amerique, Paris, 1721, 12mo. 6 vol. 
> This fhrub I have frequently met with in the Weft-Indies. : 
3 'Fwo fpecimens of this plant are now in the phyfic garden at Upfal. About the 
year 1755, they were brought over from China by M. Lagerftrom, a director of the 
Swedith Eaft-India Company, under the fuppofition of being Tea-plants, till they 
appeared in bloffom, when they proved to be this fpecies of Tfubakki, called by 
Linnzus, Camellia. Spec. Plant. p.982. This celebrated Naturalift fays, ‘* That the 
leaves of his Camellia are fo like the true Tea, that they would deceive the moft 
{kilful botanift; the only difference is, that they are a little broader. Amoenit. 
Academ. Vol. VII. p. 251. See alfo Ellis’s Direétions for bringing over foreign 
Plants, p. 28. A Camellia was brought in 1771 from China in good health; the 
leaves of this fhrub end ina double obtufe point (obtufely emarginated) like thofe — 
of the Tea tree, which makes them ftill more’ liable to be miftaken for thofe of the 
latter. Keempfer obferves, that the leaves of a fpecies of Tfubakki are preferved, 
and mixed with Tea, to give it a fine flavour. Ameenit, Exotic. p. 858. It is now 
a common plant in the ereen-houfes about London. me 
: Hea ee "Veronica, — 
