TEA TREE. 
Sir George Staunton, Bart, in his A uthentic 
Account of an Embassy from the King of 
Great Britain to the Emperor of China, gives 
the following particulars respe6ling the Tea 
Plant, the soil suited to it's culture, the form 
of the plant, and the method of curing it. 
It first occurred in the Journey from Chu-san 
to Canton. 
*' On the sides and tops of earthen embank- 
ments dividing the garden-grounds, and groves 
of oranges, the Tea Plant was for the first 
time seen growing like a common shrub 
scattered carelessly about. Of this interesting 
plant, there are not only so many drawings 
published in a variety of books of travels, and 
of natural history, but also so many specimens 
of it are met with growing in public and 
private gardens in divers parts of Europe, that 
it were superfluous to give a delineation of it 
in this w'ork. In China, wherever it is re- 
gularly cultivated, it rises from the seed so-vvn 
in vows, at the distance of about four feet from 
each other, in land kept free from weeds. It 
is seldom sown on fiat or marshy ground, 
which is reserved for rice. Vast tradts of hilly 
land, 
