OCR Text |
Show TEA TREE. TEA TREE. tion of the leaves, obvious even to the most inattentive oliserver. The green tea plant hasleaves of a largersize than the other,el. liptic, sharp-pointed ; whereas the black is a perfect oval, rounder at the apex, andthe first is of an apple-green colour, whereas consider the black and green tea (Thea nigraet viridis) as form. ing distinct teas of themselves. 216 the black is of a dark olive; the former has a very wrinkledleaf, the latter perfectly smooth: the textures also differ ; the green has a muchlooser texture, hence the one is somewhat transpa- rent, the other opake; the green spreads out, waving like the leaves of corn, and distant, whereas the black are numerous, stiff, and pressed close to the stem: the edges also differ ; the green is unequally toothed, teeth large, it may be said to be jagged; the black is simplyserrated, the teeth even, and minute, No two plants, therefore, can be more readily discriminated than the black and green, although the fructification so greatly resembles in both that these are usually not to be distinguished; for the number of petals in both kinds is very subject to vary. The leaf of the bohea tea, by the firmness of its texture, approaches very near to the Japan rose (Camellia Japonica), only these are half the size; and it seems closelyallied to this plant, so that gardeners also notice this resemblance: and it is curious that the early plants imported to Europe as the true tree, sold by the Chinese, were actually the Camellia Japonica *; and I think it more than probable that the leaves of this plant are used with the green tea, which may renderthat kindof tea so stimulating ; and it is allowed on all hands that this plant is inter- mixed with the green tea, and may produce much pernicious effect upon some peculiar habits. But I mention this only as my own imperfect conjecture; for, swayed by the general, and nowuniversally received, opinion +, I am not indeed allowed to * Linnzus endeayoured for several years to procure the tea tree for the botanic garden at Upsal, but by a variety of accidents they were all destroyed on the passage. At length, in the year 1755, Lagerstroem, a di« rector of the Swedish East India company, brought him twoplants, which he himself obtained in China; but they proved to bethe camellia, “the crafty Chinese,” says professor Martyn, “ having plucked away the flowers.” In 1769 Linnzus received anotherplant from France; but that also proved to be the camellia, which is now common enough in our green-houses, 4 being a very ornamental plant. But in October 1763 Linnzus first received the true tea plant from Gustavus Ekeberg, captain of a Swedish Tndiaman, who raised it from seed on the voyage. "The first that floweredin England was at Sion, the seat of the duke of Northumberland.—Martyn. * Professor Martyn, Dr. Lettsom, Des Fontaines, &c., with all the tra- 917 The following is the description usually given of the tea trec, without attending in the least to the two kinds discriminated by Linneus. Tea is a branchy evergreen shrub, which, according to Kempfer and Thunberg, grows tothe height of four or five feet, though other travellers assert that it rises sometimes to thirty. Its leaves are alternate, hard, oval, orelliptic; of a some. what shining green colour, entire near the base, but serrated in the rest of their length, and supported on a short and halfcylindric footstalk. ‘The buds are acute, and accompanied with a husk, which detaches itself, and drops off at the period of its development. The flowers growsingly, or sometimes, but more rarely, twoand-two, in the eyes of the leaves, on short and somewhat thick pedicles. The calyx is small, persistent, and has five obtuse divisions. The corolla, for the most part, has six white petals, round and open: the two exterior ones are smaller and unequal. Its breadth is about the third of an inch. The stamina, which are more than two hundred in number, are shorter than the corolla, and attached under the germen. Each anther has two cells. The germen, which is of a rounded triangular form, and surmounted by a style divided into three filiform stigmata, becomes a capsule with three round monospermouscells united at the base, and opening longitudinally on one side only. vellers into China, are agreed, that there is no just distinction into the two species here attempted to be formed; yet, if any one will take the pains fo examine the green and black teas imported, the distinctions of the leaves of the two kinds here given maybe noticed, and the greater thinness and length, &c. of the green leaf will be readily observed, Is is said that, the green tea being oncein fashion in England, the East India companywished to have chiefly this sort, and it was returnedin answer hy the Chinese, “that to extirpate their bohea tea trees, and plant in their room green tea trees, would take up several years to accomplish, nor had they, at that time, green tea enough to supply our market.” Hence persons were engaged to write down the green tea, and turn the tide of public opinion in favour of the black tea, which is now almost universally drunk in England, or mixed with only a sprinkling of green, |