284 



TEA DISTKICTS OF CHINA. Chap. XVI, 



from the Canton variety, and hence its name. Such, 

 however, is not the case. 



When I visited Foo-chow-foo for the first time in 

 1845, I observed that the tea-plant in cultivation in 

 that neighbourhood was very different from the Canton 

 variety, and apparently identical with the Thea viridis 

 of Chekiang. Foo-chow-foo was not a very great 

 distance from the Bohea hills, and I had good reasons 

 for believing that the Bohea plant was the same as 

 the Foo-chow one ; but still I had no positive proof. 

 Now, however, having been on Woo-e-shan itself, and 

 over a great deal of the surrounding country, and 

 having dried specimens of all these plants before me, 

 I am better able to give an opinion upon this long- 

 disputed subject. 



I believe that the Woo-e-shan plant is closely allied 

 to the Thea viridis and originally identical with that 

 species, but slightly altered by climate. On the 

 closest examination I was only able to detect very 

 slight differences, not sufficient to constitute a distinct 

 variety, far less a species, and in many of the plants 

 these differences were not even visible. The dif- 

 ferences alluded to were these — the Woo-e plant 

 showed less inclination to throw out branches than the 

 Hwuy-chow one, and its leaves were sometimes rather 

 darker and more finely serrated. 



But it is possible to go into a tea-plantation in any 

 part of China, and to find more marked distinctions 

 amongst its plants than these I have noticed. The 

 reason of this is obvious. The tea-plant is multiplied 

 by seed like our hawthorns, and it is perfectly im- 



