TEA AND THE TEA PLANT. 



77 



several specimens of historic interest, such as those contributed from China by 

 Lord Macartney and by Sir George Staunton, collected in the neighbourhood of 

 Canton. Fortune's specimens are in several herbaria, such as n. 108 of 1845 

 and n. 18 of 1846. He found this the chief tea plant of South China, Kuang- 

 tung, and in the great black tea province of Fukien, the tea from which is 

 shipped from Canton and Hong-Kong, &c. Dr. Henry also made repeated records 

 of this plant, such as his Tchang sample (No. 2,214 of 1887 and No. 2,499) ; 

 from Nan-t'o and the mountains northward (No. 1,917 also No. 2,978) ; T)r. Faber 

 from Mount Omei in Szechwan ("Cult." No. 96). So also at Foochow it was 

 gathered by Carles (No. 735) and said to be there valued for the oil from its seed. 

 In Japan it was collected by Maximowicz at Yokohama and by Oldham at 

 Nagasaki (Nos. 415 and 35 (a)), where Oldham says it is often planted as a fence. 

 From Hongkong (Ningpo Mts.) it has been recorded as rare (Nos. 251 and 252), 

 and is a thick dark green and coarsely serrated form. Hancock observes that 

 the finest teas of the Ningpo monastery were made from the plant collected b^- 

 him, which proves to be a characteristic example of the present variety'. In 

 1882 Mr. Watters procured it in Formosa, the record on the label of this 

 sample being " Si-tei. This tree has flowers and fruits like the tea shrub, and 

 the leaf is used with and as a substitute for tea." That remark is somewhat 

 curious, since it would suggest that it is a wild species used only in place of the 

 true tea plant of Formosa [Oolong tea ?). 



Var. y STRICTA (see fig. 10) : Linn., Herb, {spcciwcnn. 1, hut ivitli out name) ; 

 T. Cliusan in Petiver, Hort., n. 983 {British Museum), collected in Chnsan 

 {^(f N.) hy Cunningham in 1702; Thea stricta, Haijne, Gcwiichse, 1821, m'-i. 

 t. 27 ; Nees, Abild. Offiz. Pflanzen, 1828, ii. t. 428. The China Tea of Indian 

 planters. (See fig. 13, which shows the relative sizes of leading tea leaves.) 



A small stunted, much-branched bush that usually does not exceed two feet 

 in height. It is frequently met with in Darjeeling, Kumaon, Kangra, the 

 Nilghiri hills, and some parts of Upper Assam, but, curiously enough, is but 

 indifferently represented in Chinese collections. It has been gathered in 

 j^.antations in Mauritius, Brazil, Kio de Janeiro (Vauthier's specimen, in 

 Sir W. Hooker's herb., &c.). Martins in the " Flora of Brazil " speaks of it as 

 having escaped from former plantations into the neighbouring hills. 



Branches all straight, ascending, very leafy. Leaves small, linear, smooth, 

 thick, leathery in texture, inconspicuously reticulated, rigidly ascending in 

 attitude, and rarely possessed of more than eight, sometimes only six or even 

 only four, primary veins. In length they average from one to two or two and 

 a half inches, and in breadth half to a little under one inch. But in extreme 

 cases the bushes and leaves may be considerably smaller. In the Kew 

 Herbarium there is a seedling which accidentally^ appeared in Cachar (not in 

 flower certainly), but the whole plant only four to six inches in height, stem, 

 branches, and roots included, but the while copiously branched. The leaA'es do 

 not exceed half an inch in length and one-quarter in breadth. (See fig. 13, the 

 smallest leaf shown.) 



In var. stricta the under surface of the leaf is seen to be copiously 

 besprinkled with the exceedingly minute scale-like structures already spoken 

 of under var. Bohea. In fact this peculiarity' so unerringly separates these two 

 plants from all the other races of tea that it makes one hesitate to accept either 

 as being hybrids from the larger-leaved forms. 



Though I am not aware of this plant having been recorded as met with 

 anywhere in the truly wild or even fully acclimatised condition (except the 

 reference above in connection with Brazil), I have myself met with it in seed 

 plantations where, although grown for years under shade and without being 

 pruned, it had hardly altered any of its characteristics except in becoming 

 larger than is usually the case when found in the tea garden. But, let me 



