TEA AND THE TEA PLANT. 



81 



There is a tradition, very general in China, that tlie tea plant came from 

 the province of «Yunan. Dr. Henry tells me that he has never met with it 

 in a wild condition, except in the portions of Yunan that border on the 

 Shan States. There it occm's not only under precisely similar conditions 

 to those in Assam, the Naga Hills, Manipm', Cachar, the Lushai country, 

 and Burma — namely, under shade in rich forest tracts, on low, undulating 

 hilly country, from 2,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea — but within practically 

 identical latitudes, though at slightly higher altitudes. In Yunan the 

 plant collected by Dr. Henry (many specimens of which are in the Kew 

 Herbarium) closely approximates to the Indian indigenous forms, and 

 these together constitute the Camellia (Thea) viridis of the early authors. 

 An extensive series of Chinese samples may be seen in herbaria collected 

 by most travellers who have given attention to the plants of China, but 

 in no instance have I come across a sample with the vigour of growth seen 

 in the Lushai or even the Manipur plants. 



On the other hand, on passing north and north-eastward from Yunan, 

 through the tea districts of South China, we first meet with forms that 

 correspond with the much-prized "Assam indigenous" of the Indian 

 tea-gardens, and then the intermediate plant, some of the states of which 

 have in India been called the Assam-China hybrid {fig. 12 a) — the Camellia 

 Bohea of the early botanists— and finally, in the higher latitudes of 

 cultivation, it would seem probable that the stunted plant which in India 

 is alone designated the " China tea " — the plant to which Hayne gave the 

 name C. s^ric^ct— makes its appearance. On the more western and north- 

 western tracts of China, up to the Yang-tse-kiang, the variety viridis 

 would seem to be the most abundant form. One of the interesting 

 specimens of that variety, as already stated, will be found in the Sloane 

 herbarium of the British Museum ; it came from Chusan, and was named 

 (by Petiver), in consequence, T. Chusan. 



Thus in the south-western and western portions of the area of 

 tea production the plant might be described as almost tropical, and as 

 becoming a tree with leaves a foot or more in size. In the north-eastern 

 and eastern regions it is a bush of temperate climes, with leaves often 

 not materially greater than one inch in length. 



There would thus seem no doubt that the original home — the wild 

 habitat — of the chief commercial form of the Indian tea plant, if not 

 also the original home of the species Camellia Thea, extends from 

 23° to 27° N. latitude, and embraces portions of the Lushai, Cachar, 

 Assam, Manipur, the Shan country, and the Yunan province of China. 

 It is, however, not anywhere an abundant plant, and has never been 

 recorded as truly wild except when found under the shade of trees. 

 By cultivation it has been carried many degrees both north and south 

 of that area : in Ceylon, for example, it exists at 6° N., and in Malacca 

 even still nearer the equator, while in Japan it is grown at 40° N., and 

 in China it has been successfully acclimatised at 36" N. latitude, but as 

 a cultivated plant only. 



According to certain specimens of fruits and seeds preserved in the 

 British Museum its cultivation would appear to have been attempted in 

 Jamaica (17° N.) even in the time of Sloane. In recent reports of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture mention is made of the 



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