TEA AND THE 'J:EA P].AN'1\ 



66 



consumption. At the same time, the Govej-nmont liaving got over their 

 financial dilticulties, the duty was reduced until it stood at l^-. (kl. to 3s. 

 a pound, according to quality. In 1856 the duty became Is., and in 1867 

 it finally became Gd. a pound. 



For our present purpose it is not necessary to go into further statistical 

 details. The particulars mentioned justify the opinion that, 200 years 

 ago, tea in England could not have been much more than a luxury of the 

 very wealthy ; that it did not become a necessity of life with the middle 

 classes of the community more than fifty years ago, and that only to-day 

 has it found admission to the homes of the poor. It is thus essentially 

 a modern article of European diet, and, moreover, one which has gained a 

 position of greater importance in England (and with the English colonies) 

 than in any other part of Europe. The consumption of tea per head of 

 population worked out on the census of 1900 was as follows : — Western 

 Australia, 10*07 lb. ; South Australia, 8-87 lb. ; United Kingdom, 

 8-4:i lb. ; New South Wales, 8*01 lb. ; Victoria, 7*38 lb. ; Queensland, 

 7-09 lb. ; New Zealand, 678 lb. ; Tasmania, 6-62 lb. ; Canada, 4-29 lb. ; 

 Holland, 1*48 lb. ; United States, 1-14 lb. ; Russia, 0-93 lb. ; Germany, 

 0-13 lb. ; and France O'Oo lb. 



Discovery of the Tea Plant in India.— The first mention of tea 

 in connection with India occurs in the " Journal' of Albert de Mandelslo " 

 (1659, p. 42) in which he says the habit of tea drinking was general 

 both with the Natives and Europeans. A similar statement occurs in 

 Ovington's " Voyage to Surat " (1689, pp. 305-9). The Dutch East India 

 Company, we also read, were in the habit of transhipping the tea they 

 brought from China at Madras and Surat preparatory to its being sent to 

 Europe. The habit of tea drinking may in consequence have been 

 acquired in the coast towns of India to a small extent, but it is not 

 general even to-day. 



Curiously enough, one of the earliest and at the same time most 

 instructive botanical specimens of the tea plant extant is in the Sloane 

 Herbarium of the British Museum. It will be found in vol. Ixxxi. p. 48, 

 and belongs to a series of specimens said to have been collected in Malabar, 

 between 1698 and 1702, by Samuel Browne and Edward Bulkley. Browne 

 was a surgeon in the service of the East India Company and died some 

 time prior to 1703. He was succeeded by Bulkley. Both of these officers 

 made extensive botanical collections which were sent for the most part to 

 James Petiver. It is thus just possible that long prior to the discovery of 

 the indigenous tea plant in India or to the importations from China of 

 seeds and plants accomplished by Gordon and Fortune (presently to be 

 described) the tea plant had actually been conveyed to India and cultivated 

 experimentally somewhere on the Malabar coast. But what is most 

 curious of all is, that the plant so grown w^as not Camellia thea, Link, 

 var. Bohea (the plant presently being cultivated most frequently in the 

 plantations of South India), but var. viridis, and was thus very similar to 

 the so-called " Assam Indigenous." It is, moreover, just possible that 

 upon this very specimen was based the name Thea viridis, as given by 

 HiU and adopted subsequently by Linna'us. In fact Linnaeus possessed 

 only one leaf of the plant, so that the type of the species has to be accepted 

 as given by Hill ('• Exot. Bot." 1759, fl:'. 21, 22). 



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