198 TEA DISTRICTS VISITED. [Cuar. XI. 
any of the districts where tea is cultivated, and 
the information derived from the Chinese mer- 
chants, even scanty as it was, was not to be 
depended upon. And hence we find our English 
authors contradicting each other, some asserting 
that the black and green teas are produced by the 
same variety, and that the difference in colour is 
the result of a different mode of preparation, while 
others say that the black teas are produced from 
the plant called by botanists Thea Bohea, and the 
green from Thea viridis, both of which we have 
had for many years in our gardens in England. 
During my travels in China since the last war, 
I have had frequent opportunities of inspecting 
some extensive tea districts in the black and green 
tea countries of Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang, and 
the result of these observations is now laid before 
the reader. It will prove that even those who have 
had the best means of judging have been deceived, 
and that the greater part of the black and green teas 
which are brought yearly from China to Europe 
and America are obtained from the same species or 
variety, namely, from the Thea viridis, Dried 
specimens of this plant were prepared in the dis- 
tricts I have named by myself, and are now in the 
herbarium of the Horticultural Society of London, 
so that there can be no longer any doubt upon 
the subject. 
Tn various parts of the Canton province, where 
I had an opportunity of seeing tea cultivated, the 
species proved to be the Thea Bohea, or what is 
