[1] Among several hundred specimens of dried Tea-flowers that I have examined, scarcely one in twenty was perfect. Some had three petals only, some nine, and others the several intermediate numbers. The greatest number consisted of six large petals, and externally three lesser ones of the same form. But the flowers, which blossomed on the Tea-plant belonging to the duke of Northumberland, from which this description is taken, consisted in general of six petals. One of the flowers indeed appeared to have eight petals; however, the number in the flowers in most plants vary considerably, which may account for the mistake of Dr. Hill, and professor Linnæus (who described this plant on Dr. Hill’s authority), who make the green and bohea Tea two distinct species, giving nine petals to the former, and six to the latter. See Amœn. Acad. Vol. VII. p. 248. Hill. Exot. t. 22. Kæmpfer. Amœn. Exot. p. 607. Breyn. Exot. Plant. Cent. 1. p. 111. Hist. de. l’Acad. des Sciences, 1776, p. 52.
[2] In a flower I received from that accurate naturalist, J. Ellis, F. R. S. &c. I counted upwards of 280 filaments; and, in another I had from Dr. Fothergill, there appeared to be nearly the same number.
[3] Kæmpfer describes the Antheræ as being single.
[4] Authors differ widely respecting the size of this tree. Le Compte says, it grows of various sizes from two feet to two hundred, and sometimes so thick, that two men can scarcely grasp the trunk in their arms: though he afterwards observes, that the Tea-trees, he saw in the province of Fokien, did not exceed five or six feet in height. Journey through the empire of China, London, 1697, 8vo. p. 228. Du Halde quotes a Chinese author, who describes the height of different Tea-trees, from one to thirty feet. Description génerale historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de la Chine, Paris, 1755. Fol. 4 Tom. History of China, London, 1736. 8vo. Vol. IV. page 22. See also Guil. Piso in Itinere Brasilica.
But Kæmpfer, who is chiefly to be depended upon, confines the full growth to about a man’s heighth. Amœn. Exot. Lemgov. 1712, 4to. pag. 605. Probably this may be a just medium; for Osbeck says, that he saw Tea-shrubs in flower-pots, not above an ell high. Voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 247. See also Eckeberg’s account of the Chinese husbandry, Vol. II. p. 303.
[5] When the peduncles increase in thickness towards their extremities.
[6] No author has hitherto remarked this obvious circumstance; even Kæmpfer himself says, that the leaves terminate in a sharp point. Amœn. Exot. p. 611.
[7] When the upper surface of the leaf rises in several places in roundish swellings, hollow underneath.
[8] Whether the word Tea is borrowed from the Japanese Tsjaa, or the Chinese Theh, is not of much importance. By this name, with very little difference in pronunciation, the plant here treated of is well known in most parts of the world.
[9] I have examined several hundred flowers, both from the bohea and green Tea countries, and their botanical characters have always appeared uniform. See Directions for bringing over seeds and plants from distant countries, by John Ellis, Esq. Sir George Staunton’s Embassy, Vol. II. p. 464, says, “Every information received concerning the Tea plant concurred in affirming that its qualities depended upon the soil in which it grew, and the age at which the leaves were plucked off the tree, as well as upon the management of them afterwards.”