Am.  Jour.  Pharn  .)  J"  o  T 
February.  1903.    J  lta.  OI 
left  him  wallowing  in  a  slough  of  doubt,  and  he  expresses  no  sharp, 
crisp,  clear  opinion  on  the  subject.  In  "  Origin  of  Cultivated 
Plants  "  he  says :  "  The  seeds  of  the  tea  plant  often  sow  themselves 
beyond  the  limits  of  cultivation,  thereby  inspiring  doubt  among 
botanists  as  to  the  wild  nature  of  the  plants  encountered  here  and 
there.  Thunberg  believed  the  species  to  be  wild  in  Japan,  but 
Franchet  and  Savatier  absolutely  deny  this.  Fortune,  who  has  so 
carefully  examined  the  cultivation  of  tea  in  China,  does  not  speak 
of  the  wild  plant.  Fontanier  says  that  the  tea  plant  grows  wild 
abundantly  in  Manchuria.  It  is  probable  that  it  exists  in  the 
mountainous  districts  of  Southeastern  China,  where  naturalists  have 
not  yet  penetrated.  Loureiro  says  that  it  is  found  both  cultivated 
and  uncultivated  in  Cochin  China.  What  is  more  certain  is  that 
English  travelers  gathered  specimens  in  Upper  Assam  and  in  the 
province  of  Cachar,  so  that  the  tea  plant  must  be  wild  in  the 
mountainous  region  which  separates  the  plains  of  India  from  those 
of  China;  but  the  use  of  the  leaves  was  not  formerly  known  in 
India." 
According  to  Breitschneider,  tea  is  mentioned  in  a  Chinese  work, 
the  "  Pentsao,"  about  2700  B.C.,  the  period  that  marks  the  begin- 
nings of  Chinese  history,  and  again  in  the  "  Rye,"  about  600  or  300 
B.C.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  some  evidence  that  the  use  and 
cultivation  of  tea  was  introduced  into  China  proper  from  Corea 
during  the  fourth  century  a.d.  From  that  period  forward  the  his- 
tory of  the  plant  in  China  may  be  clearly  traced.  Tea  cultivation 
in  Japan  began  during  the  ninth  century.  Until  the  last  century 
these  two  countries  grew  all  the  tea  produced  and  even  at  the  pres- 
ent day  they  grow  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  world's  supply. 
Hindustan,  Farther  India  and  the  nearby  islands  are  the  only  places 
whose  teas  have  regularly  entered  the  markets  in  competition  with 
the  Chinese  and  Japanese  teas.  Systematic  tea  culture  on  an 
extended  scale  in  India  began  about  1836,  and  since  that  time  the 
Indian  product  has  steadily  increased  in  quantity.  The  rapid  growth 
of  tea  culture  in  that  country  began  about  1 870,  when  the  crop 
amounted  to  3,000,000  pounds.  By  1878  it  had  reached  37,000,000 
pounds,  and  by  1880  the  estimated  crop  was  78,000,000  pounds. 
In  Natal  the  plant  is  successfully  cultivated  and  the  acreage  is 
being  increased  from  ^year  to  year.  In  a  recently  published  paper 
a  Natal  citizen  expresses  the  opinion  that  his  country  will  soon 
