4. Dr Christison exhibited specimens from the Government Superintendent of Tea Culture in Assam, illustrating the several ages at which the leaves of the Assam and China Tea-plants are used for making the different commercial varieties of black and green tea

Extract

An examination of these specimens seemed to prove, that the leaves of the China tea-plant, cultivated at the same plantation with the tea-plant of Assam, are considerably less, and somewhat thicker, but otherwise so exactly similar, that the two plants may well be mere varieties of the same species,—an opinion now generally adopted by botanists in India. The specimens further illustrated the doctrine deduced from recent investigations in India, that the different kinds of green and black tea are made from the leaves of one species of plant, collected at different periods of their development.