244 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap, XV. 
far less a species, and in many of the plants these 
differences were not even visible. The differences 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 impossible 
that the produce can be identical in every respect with 
the parent. Instead therefore of having one or two 
varieties of tea-plant in China, we have in fact many 
kinds, although the difference between them may be 
slight. Add to this, that the seeds of this plant are 
raised year after year in different climates, and we shall 
no longer wonder that in the course of time the plants 
in one district appear slightly different from those of 
another, although they may have been originally pro- 
duced from the same stock. 
For these reasons I am of opinion that the plants of 
Hwuy-chow and Woo-e are the same species, and that 
the slight differences observed are the results of repro- 
duction and difference of climate. 
With regard to the Canton plant— that called Thea 
hohea by botanists — different as it appears to be, both 
in constitution and habit, it too may have originally 
sprung from one and the same species. 
These changes, however, do not alter the commercial 
value of those plants found cultivated in the great tea- 
