558 Description of the Species of Camellia and Thea. 



distinct species cultivated in this country, namely, 1. Thea 

 viridis ; 2. Thea Bohea ; and 3. Thea Euryoides ; which may 

 be distinguished by the following characters. 



Essential Character. 

 Flowers axillary stalked. Calyx inferior, of 5 deeply divided 

 permanent roundish segments. Corolla of 5, 6, or 9 petals. 

 Styles cohering at the base, dividing towards the point into 

 3 distinct bodies. Capsule 3-lobed 3-celled. Seeds solitary. 



I. Thea viridis. L. 

 Green Tea. 



T. viridis; foliis elliptico-oblongis emarginatis sub-rugosis nitidis. 



This plant is generally believed* to have been first intro- 

 duced about 1768, by the late John Ellis, Esq. of the India 

 House, who obtained it from seed. 



In its growth it is loose and straggling. The stem is of a deep brown, with 

 alternate branches of a much paler colour, round and twiggy, but not numerous, 

 smooth, excepting near the point of the young shoots, which are clothed with fine 

 silky pubescence. The leaves are oblong, tapering more towards the point than the 

 base, usually from 3 to S£ inches long, and about 1 \ inch broad in the widest part ; 

 quite smooth, veiny, undulated, irregularly serrated, with a blunt emarginate 

 point, and of a pale yellowish green colour. They are slightly blistered in places, 

 and have a very prominent midrib, the under side being more veiny than the upper. 

 Petioles short, roundish on the under side, slightly flattened above, channelled and 

 pubescent. Flowers axillary, but often terminal, solitary, produced on a round 

 peduncle an inch long, having somewhat the appearance of being jointed, and 

 gradually enlarging towards the calyx, with a single erect subulate slightly 

 serrated bractea. Calyx of 5 roundish flat obtuse permanent segments. Petals 

 generally 5 or 7, roundish-concave, forming a tolerably regular flower on first 

 opening, but afterwards becoming recurved and irregular ; the petals are rather 

 more than half an inch in diameter, connected together at the base, which is 

 thick and fleshy, but otherwise they are thin and delicate, and of a yellowish 

 white colour. Filaments numerous, filiform, nearly all of an equal length, rather 

 shorter than the petals. Anthers two-lobed, deep yellow, bursting at each of the 

 roundish ends. Styles simple, united at the base, but splitting near the top into 

 three separate bodies. Ovary small, roundish, pale green, slightly pubescent, 

 3-celled, containing two ovules in each cell. 



* Hortus Kewensis, Edit. alt. Vol. III. page 303. 



