1835.] Tea Plant in Upper Assam. 47 



the time be obviated. By the end of the cold weather, when the young 

 leaves are on the trees, I hope to send you as good black tea as we 

 generally receive from China. I will make experiments in the interim 

 in the art of preparing green. 



The tree I now find is indigenous to this place as well as Beesa, and 

 grows wild every here and there, all the way from this, about a month's 

 journey, to the Chinese province Yunnan, where I am told it is exten- 

 sively cultivated. One or two people from that province have assured 

 me, that the tea tree grown there exactly resembles the species that we 

 have here ; so I think there can be no longer any doubt of its being 

 bond-fide tea. What a pity there is no means of communication between 

 Sadiya and Yunnan. A good land-road made only as- far as Hookam, 

 and there are no natural obstacles of any consequence to prevent it, 

 would afford an outlet for British merchandize into the very heart of 

 China. 



Copy of a note from Captain F. Jenkins to Dr. Wallich, on the back 

 of the above, dated (at Gowahatty) 22nd November, 1834. 

 I have only time to send this and to say, I have sent a jar of tea- 

 leaves and a box of tea seeds to go by to-day's dak, I hope you will 

 see from the seeds that there is no doubt ours is genuine tea. 



Memorandum explanatory of the sketches which accompany the report of 

 the Committee of Tea Culture. 



There is no danger of mistaking any plant for the tea except the 

 Camellia. Both are very closely allied to each other in general appear- 

 ance, in the form of their leaves and the structure of the flowers. It 

 is by the character of the fruit alone that they can be satisfactorily dis- 

 tinguished for practical purposes ; in that respect the two genera differ 

 very widely. 



In both the fruit consists of a roundish, more or less triangular, dry 

 capsule, of three distinct cells, each cell containing one solitary seed or 

 nut. At the period of maturity the dehiscence or bursting takes place 

 vertically, by means of three fissures, extending from the top of the 

 capsule towards its base. So far their capsules are precisely alike ; the 

 following are the points of difference. 



In the tea, the capsule is more or less deeply divided into three 

 globular lobes, sometimes appearing as if it consisted of three round 

 capsules united into one. The general outline is therefore always 

 decidedly triangular, with extremely obtuse corners. The bursting 

 proceeds along the middle of the lobes or angles, when a large seed is 

 discovered through each aperture enclosed on all sides within its proper 

 cell, which cell is in fact formed by the corresponding lobe of the fruit. 



