licidal
dehiscence, or with dessepiments formed from the turned-in edges of
the valves. Seeds solitary, or two in cells, shell-like testa,
marked with the ventral umbilicus. Cotyledons thick, fleshy, oily,
no albumen. Radicle very short, very near the umbilicus centripetal.
In the plantations there are two species, and two well marked
varieties.

The first is characterised by the leaves being of a pale-green
colour, thin, almost membraneous, broad lanceolate, sinatures or
edge irregular and reversed, length from three to six inches. The
color of the stem of newly-formed shoots is of a pale-reddish
colour, and green towards the end. This species is also marked by
its strong growth, its erect stem, and the shoots being generally
upright and stiff. The flowers are small, and its seeds but sparing.

In its characters this plant, received from Assam, agrees in part
with those assigned by Dr. Lettsom and Sir W. Hooker to the _Thea
viridis_, but differs in its branches being stiff and erect. The
flowers small, or rather much about the same size as the species
about to be described, and not confined to the upper axils of the
plant, and solitary, as stated by them.[10] By the Chinese
manufacturers it is considered an inferior plant for making tea, it
is not therefore grown to any extent.

The second species is characterised by its leaves being much
smaller, and not so broadly lanceolate; slightly waved, of a
dark-green color, thick and coriaceous, sinature or edge irregular,
length from one to three inches and a half. In its growth it is much
smaller than the former, and throws out numerous spreading branches,
and seldom presents its marked leading stem. This species,
therefore, in the above characters, agrees much with those that have
been assigned to _Thea Bohea_ by authors. The characters have been
mixed up in an extraordinary manner. Thus it has been stated, that
the _Thea viridis_ has large, strong growing, and spreading
branches, and that _Thea Bohea_ is a smaller plant, with branches
stiff and straight, and stem erect. No doubt the _Thea viridis_ is a
much larger and stronger growing plant than the _Thea Bohea_, or
rather the plant now existing in the different plantations is so;
but in the former the branches are stiff and erect, and in the
latter inclined and branches. Th