110 



TEA. 



Where the ground is very uneven, as is the case generally in the hills, the 

 lihaul system, already recommended, ought to be adopted. 



On the tea-plant ; season of flowering^ its characters and species^ and on the 

 advantages to he derived from importing seeds from China. — From the importance 

 of tea, as an article of commerce, the plant has attracted much attention ; and 

 from few qualified Europeans having travelled in the tea districts of China, 

 there is much difference of opinion as to the number of species belonging to 

 the genus Thea. 



In the government plantations in Kumaon and Grur-wahl, the plants begin to 

 flower about the end of August and beginning of September, or, as the seeds 

 of the former year begin to ripen. They do not all come into flower at once, 

 but some are in full blossom in September, others in October, j^ovember, 

 December and January. Some throw out a second set of blossoms in March, 

 April, and May, and during the rains ; so that from the same plant unripe or 

 ripe seeds and flowers may be collected at one and the same time. 



To the genus Thea, which belongs to the order Ternstrsemiaceae, the fol- 

 lowing characters have been ascribed : calyx persistent, without bracts, five- 

 leaved, leaflets imbricated and generally of the same size. Petals of the 

 corolla vary in number from five to nine, imbricated, the inner ones much the 

 largest. Stamens numerous, in several rows adhering to the bottom of the 

 petals. Filaments filiform. Anthers incumbent, two-celled, oblong, with a 

 thickish connectivum. Cells opening longitudinally. Ovary free, three-celled; 

 ovules four in each cell, inserted internaUy into the central angle, the upper 

 ones ascending, the lower pendulous. Stjde trifid, stigmas three, acute. 

 Capsule spheroidal, 1-7-lobed with loculicidal dehiscence, or with dessepiments 

 formed from the turned- in edges of the valves. Seeds solitary, or two in cells, 

 shell-like testa, marked with the ventral umbilicus. Cotyledons thick, fleshy, 

 oily, no albumen. Radicle very short, very near the umbilicus centripetal. 

 In the plantations there are two species, and two well marked varieties. 



The first is characterised by the leaves being of a pale-green colour, thin, 

 almost membraneous, broad lanceolate, sinatures or edge irregular and reversed, 

 length from three to six inches. The color of the stem of newly-formed shoots 

 is of a pale-reddish colour, and green towards the end. This species is also 

 marked' by its strong growth, its erect stem, and the shoots being generally 

 upright and stiff. The flowers are small, and its seeds but sparing. 



In its characters this plant, received from Assam, agrees in part with those 

 assigned by Dr. Lettsom and Sir "W. Hooker to the Thea viridis^ but difiers in 

 its branches being stifi^ and erect. The flowers small, or rather much about the 

 same size as the species about to be described, and not conflned to the upper axils 

 of the plant, and solitary, as stated by them.* By the Chinese manufacturers 

 it is considered an inferior plant for making tea, it is not therefore grown to 

 any extent. 



The second species is characterised by its leaves being much smaller, and 

 not so broadly lanceolate ; slightly waved, of a dark-green color, thick and 

 coriaceous, sinature or edge irregular, length from one to three inches and a 

 half. In its growth it is much smaller than the former, and throws out nu- 

 merous spreading branches, and seldom presents its marked leading stem. This 

 species, therefore, in the above characters, agrees much with those that have 

 been a>signed to Thea Bohea by authors. The characters have been mixed up 

 in an extraordinary manner. Thiis it has been stated, that the Thea viridis has 

 large, strong growing, and spreading branches, and that Thea Bohea is a smaller 

 plant, with branches stiff and straight, and stem erect. ISTo doubt the Thea 

 viridis is a much larger and stronger throwing plant than the Thea Bohea, or 

 rather the plant now existing in the different plantations is so; but in the former 

 the branches are stiff and erect, and in the latter inclined and branches. The 

 marked distinguishing characters between the two species are the coriaceous 

 dark-green leaves in the Thea Bohea, and the large pale-green monhaniBOus 

 leaves of the Thea viridis. The manner, too, of growth is very striking, and 

 on entering the plantation the distinction is at once marked to the most imob- 



* Hooker's " Bot. Mag.," 1. 31^3. It is the Assam tea plant. 



