BEVERAGE PLANTS 275 



beautiful foliage. It requires a climate that is at 

 least warm temperate, so it is not hardy north of 

 our Gulf states. In these it is by no means an 

 uncommon plant. 



The leaf is the only commercial product of the 

 tea plant. For this it has been cultivated fof 

 five thousand years, if we can believe the ancient 

 Chinese, writings that make mention of it. Until 

 500 a. d., tea leaves were used as a medicine only. 

 Then tea became a beverage, and sprang into 

 popularity in the Orient. 



In Assam, a province of India that borders on 

 China, a species of tea has been found growing wild, 

 and botanists have considered this fact as evidence 

 that this is the ancestral home of the plant. 

 Tradition says that China is its home. Nobody 

 can prove either claim. The interesting fact is 

 that from the wild tea have sprung varieties that 

 thrive in all tropical countries, and the industry 

 based on tea culture is one of the most important 

 in the commercial world. 



America, which is not a good customer of the 

 tea merchant, buys each year over four million 

 pounds from Japan alone. Fifteen million dollars 

 a year we spend for tea in oriental markets. And 

 we are not obliged to buy abroad either, for tea 

 from South Carolina plantations is now to be had. 



