TEA TREE. 
149 
rather more : the root is black, woody and branch- 
ed ; the stem is divided into several irregular 
branches, covered with a thin bark, and tinged with 
green towards the extremity of the young shoots. 
The wood is hard, fibrous, and but sparingly pro- 
vided with pith. The leaves are attached to the 
branches by a short, slender pedicle, and when of 
their full size resemble the leaves of the black cherry 
tree both in figure and colour; but when young, and 
before they are fit to be gathered, they are not unlike 
the leaves of the common euonymus, except in co- 
lour. They are numerous, of an intense green, 
serrated at the edges, and disposed alternately on 
the branches. The flowers spring from the axils of 
the leaves ; they are sometimes solitary, and some- 
times united, two or three together. When full- 
blown they measure an inch or more, have an agree- 
able smell, a white colour, and resemble in form 
the common wild rose. The calyx is cut into five 
or six segments, and the corolla consists of eight or 
nine petals; the stamens are very numerous, — Kaemp- 
fer counted two hundred and thirty, each having a 
slender filament shorter than the corolla, crowned 
with a simpleyellow anther. The style is unique, and 
placed in the centre of the stamens, and the germ, to 
which it is connected, becomes, when ripe, a tough 
capsule, sometimes simple, but more frequently 
composed of two or three partitions, each con- 
taining a roundish stone that encloses a kernel, from 
whence the Chinese in the province of Fokien express 
an oil which they use for some particular purposes. 
