<8 
The plant was about five feet high, and 
an inch in diameter in the stem, and was 
in full foliage, with both green and ripe 
fruit. It was viewed in the river-with 
great attention and curiosity, by se- 
veral members of the academy of sci- 
ences, and was afterwards conducted to 
the royal garden a® Marly under the care 
of Monsieur de Jussieu, the king’s pro- 
fessor of botany, who had the year be- 
fore written a memoir, printed in the 
Flistory of the Academy of Sciences of 
Paris, in the year 1713, describing the 
characters of this genus, together * with 
an elegant figure of it, taken from a 
smaller plant, which he had received 
that vear from Monsieur Pancrass, bur- 
go-master of Amsterdam, and director 
of the botanical garden there. 
In 1718, the Dutch colony at Surinam 
began first to plant coffee, and in 1722, 
Monsieur de la Motte Aigrou, governor 
of Cayenne, having business at Surinam, 
contrived by an artifice, to bring away 
a plant from thence, which in the year 
1725, had produced many thousands. 
In 1727 the French, perceiving that this 
acquisition might be of great advantage 
in their other colonies, conveyed to Mar- 
tinico some of the plants; from whence 
it most probably spread to the neighbour- 
ing islands, for in the year 1732, it was 
cultivated in Jamaica, and an act passed 
to encourage its growth in that island.— 
Thus was laid the foundation of a most 
extensive and beneficial trade to the En- 
ropean settlements in the West Indies, 
To the Editor of the Meaty Magazine. 
2 SER, 
JT may interest some of your readers 
] to be informed that the tea-tree is 
now in blossoi here, in our parlour, and 
has been ever since the 18th (inclusive) 
of this month, notwithstanding the ex- 
treme severity ‘of the weather, and that 
the thermometer within doors at half- 
past nine this morning, in a southern 
aspect, wasat 23. Another bud has even 
epened since the frost. 
Petals 6, (one smaller and shorter than 
the rest) ; concave, obtusely heart-shaped. 
Stamens very numerous (probably above 
200), with golden summits. ‘The whole 
appearance of the flower like the single 
broad-leaved myrtle; .but longer, and 
more brilliant, from ‘the raultiplicity of 
the stamens, texture of the petals, strong- 
er colour, not quite so white. Calyx: 
stellate, quinquetid, about one-fourth the 
length of the petals, 
_ The scent of the flower delicate and 
The Tea-Tree in Blossom. 
{ Feb. , 
evanescent; resembling that of fine ereen 
tea dried. 
There seems little doubt that this 
charming plant would. bear a warm apd 
sheltered exposure in the south-west of 
our island, like the broad-leaved myrtle. 
Its affinity to, the myrtle is indeed very 
striking: so much, that many species 
having been‘ lately transferred from the 
genus * Myrtus to other genera, so that it 
is now very thin. I doubt whether this. 
might not be annexed to it under the de- 
nomination of Myrtus Thea, changing its 
elegant generic uame, which it ought not 
wholly to lose, into its specific. Fond as 
I am of plants, I have never till now 
seen it in bloom. 
It is long in coming into blossom. The 
buds appeared early in September. The 
season of its flowering renders it pecu- 
harly valuable. And had the weather 
been mild, I have no doubt that in some 
few days it would have been covered with 
bloom. 
The flowers proceed from near the ex- 
tremities of the Lranches, on solitary foot- 
stalks, some opposite, others alternate. 
My plant is rear three feet. high, and 
came from Mr. Mackie, nurseryman, 
Norwich, the year before this, In close 
moist weather it requires air, and some 
heat, to absorb the damp: otherwise its 
blossoms fall without opening. This I 
experienced last year. 
I cannot imagine that its beauty in a 
good greenhouse would be at all inferior 
even to the myrtle itself. It seems to form 
the intermediate link in the’ botanical 
chasm between the myrtle and the 
orange. 
It is curious, that plants of so exten- 
sive use as the coffee and tea trees (the 
coffee perhaps one of the greatest bles- 
sings, among those that are not really 
necessaries of life, that Providence has. 
indulged to mankind, considering its be- 
neficial qualities in use as well as its 
agreeable) should be among the most 
elegant of plants in foliage and blossom ; 
and the coffee in fruit also. It is im pos- 
sible not to rejoice that the present 
cheapness of coffee, though it is to be 
feared a short-lived cheapness, has made 
it, to a considerable degree, the beverage 
of the poor. It is strengthening, where 
tea is not; it is even nutritive, while tea 
certainly is not. ‘Yea, however, itself, 
should not be without nach commenda- 
tion. Mederately taken, and not too 
hot, it may be regarded as not only in- 
nocent, but salutary. It is favourable 
so temperance and to tranquillity of 
. mind. 
