74 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mag., 1832, vi. t. 3148; Thea chincnsis, Linn., hy Seem., Trans. Linn. Soc, 

 xxii. 1859, 337-52, t. 61 ; T. assamica, Master's, Jour. Agri. Hort. Soc. Ind., 

 Hi. (1844), 63 ; Assam Tea, Wall, Jour. Asiat. Soc. Beng., iv. 48, t. 2. The 

 Assam Indigenous, the Naga Hill, Manipur, Cachar, and Lushai Wild and 

 Cultivated Teas. (See figs. 3, 7, and 8.) 



Itace 1, Assam Indigenous (see figs. 8 and 13). — A large bush or small tree 

 with the leaves from 4 to 7 inches long and 2 to 3 inches broad ; ovate, oblong, acu- 

 minate, thin, almost membraneous, curved and inflated, with, as a rule, sixteen 

 primary nerves, and the tissue betw^een these thin, crisp in texture, pale gi'een in 

 colour, bullated and profusely reticulated, pale green on the veins ; under surface 

 roughened by a multitude of fairly large warts that produce the effect of being 

 impressed from above by a multitude of sharp points. Inflorescence often 

 solitary ; flowers stalked, but not borne on a distinct common peduncle. 



The flowers of all the tea-yielding Camellias hardly differ except in size, but 

 in the first three varieties here indicated the sepals are large, imbricating, and 

 glabrous, except for the ciliate margin. In the third the sepals are densely 

 coated with ferruginous hairs. 



There are numerous sub-races of the present plant, such as the Single, 

 Bazelona, &c. It is the most abundantly cultivated and most highly prized of 

 all the Indian races. 



Bace 2, Lushai (see fig. 13). — This becomes a poplar-like small tree of perhaps 

 50 to 60 feet in height. Leaves when full grown average from 8 to 14 inches 

 in length and as much as 4 to 6 inches in breadth. It is the largest-leaved 

 form of the tea plant as yet made known ; far larger than anything recorded 

 regarding the tea plants of China. The leaves possess from twenty-two to 

 twenty-four prominent veins, but in texture and surface markings are identical 

 with the Assam indigenous. This form has only to a small extent been grown 

 in Sylhet and Chittagong, and it exists almost entirely as a local manifestation 

 of the wild plant. 



Bace 3, Naga Hills (see fig. 13). — A small straggling tree with few ascending 

 branches. It is especially plentiful near Pherima at an altitude of 2,000 feet. 

 Leaves much elongated, linear, oblong, from 4 to 9 inches in length and only 

 2 to 3 in breadth at their greatest diameter. In texture &c. it much resembles 

 the Assam. It has to some extent been cultivated in Assam, as, for example, at 

 Amguri, and it is reported to have been specially used in crossing with the 

 " Assam Indigenous." 



Bace 4, Manipur. — The wild tea plant of Manipur is never cultivated in the 

 State of Manipur ; it is there purelj^ and simply a wild plant, found in the 

 forests. When carried to Cachar, Sylhet, and even Assam, however, the 

 Manipur stock has been fairly largely grown and even crossed with some oi 

 the other stocks. It is characterised by exceptionally broad leaves, almost 

 elliptic, oblong in shape, and measuring 6 to 8 inches in length and 2^ to 3| in 

 breadth. In texture the leaves are soft and leathery, are of a dark green colour, 

 and have the reticulations sparse and open. This is in fact one of the broadest- 

 leaved forms of the Indian indigenous races, and has probably contributed 

 largely towards the formation of the specially dark green plants, seen in many 

 plantations, but which are regarded as being "Assam indigenous tea." 



Bace 5, Burma and Shan. — Too little is known regarding these tea plants to 

 aUow of critical separation from the other races ; the present position is. 

 therefore, only preserved to allow^ of more careful elaboration in the future. 

 They constitute a series that blend into the Manipur stock on the one hand, 

 into that of Yunan on the other. The leaves are smaller, thick, coarser, more 

 acutely serrated, and much less smooth than the Manipur, but distinctly- 

 elliptic in shape. The Formosan leaf (see fig. 13), recently brought into notice 

 in connection with the inquiry into Oolong tea. is a little more oblong than the 



