THE TEA TREE FAMILY. 



477 



run out. In India it is used for many purposes, as pitch, 

 varnish, &c. ; and medicinally as a substitute for Copaiba 

 Balsam ; it is imported from Moulmein as such. The 

 timber is used for boatbuilding. 



In Borneo it is said there are several species of Diptero- 

 carpus^ that produce a nut from which is expressed a fatty 

 oil, extensively used as vegetable tallow or wax. 



The Tea Tree Family. 



(Ternstromiace^.) 



Small trees and shrubs, some climbers. Leaves alternate, 

 simple, entire, or toothed, sometimes with pellucid dots. 

 Flowers axillary or terminal, generally solitary or nearly so, 

 red or white. Petals 5 or more, united at their base. Sta- 

 mens numerous, distinct, or united in one or several parcels. 

 Fruit a capsule containing large seeds. Of the 130 species 

 that constitute this family, fully one-half are natives of South 

 America, the rest being distributed throughout India, China, 

 and North America. 



Tea tree (Thea Boliea and T. viridis). Names applied to 

 the black and green tea-plants, but now understood by 

 botanists to be varieties of one species. 



T. chinensis, a small much-branched tree or shrub, not 

 exceeding 10 or 15 feet in height, having elliptical, lance- 

 shaped leaves 2 or 3 inches in length. It is extensively 

 cultivated throughout China and Japan ; and, like many 

 other plants long cultivated by man, its native country is 

 uncertain ; it is, however, undoubtedly found wild in Assam, 

 and is supposed, in progress of time, to have migrated east- 

 ward to China. An infusion of the leaves has, from time 

 immemorial, been used by the Chinese as a beverage for its 

 exhilarating properties. 



It was supposed that black and green teas were the produce 

 respectively of the two varieties of the plant, but it is now 

 known that both kinds are made indiscriminately from either, 

 the difference depending on the age of the leaf when gathered, 



