while others say that the black teas are produced from the plant called by botanists Thea Bohea, and the green from Thea viridis, both of which we have had for many years in our gardens in England.  During my travels in China since the last war, I have had frequent opportunities of inspecting some extensive tea districts in the black and green tea countries of Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang:  the result of these observations is now laid before the reader.  It will prove that even those who have had the best means of judging have been deceived, and that the greater part of the black and green teas which are brought yearly from China to Europe and America are obtained from the same species or variety, namely, from the Thea viridis.  Dried specimens of this plant were prepared in the districts I have named, by myself, and are now in the herbarium of the Horticultural Society of London, so that there can be no longer any doubt upon the subject.  In various parts of the Canton provinces where I have had an opportunity of seeing tea cultivated, the species proved to be the Thea Bohea, or what is commonly called the black tea plant.  In the green tea districts of the north—­I allude more particularly to the province of Chekiang—­I never met with a single plant of this species, which is so common in the fields and gardens near Canton.  All the plants in the green tea country near Ningpo, on the islands of the Chusan Archipelago, and in every part of the province which I have had an opportunity of visiting, proved, without an exception, to be Thea viridis.  Two hundred miles further to the north-west, in the province of Kiangnan, and only a short distance from the tea hills in that quarter, I also found in gardens the same species of tea.  Thus far my actual observations exactly verified the opinions I had formed on the subject before I left England, viz:  that the black teas were prepared from the Thea Bohea, and the green from Thea viridis.  When I left the north, on my way to the city of Foo-chow-foo, on the river Min, in the province Fokien, I had no doubt that I should find the tea hills there covered with the other species, Thea Bohea, from which we generally suppose the black teas are made; and this was the more likely to be the case as this species actually derives its specific name from the Bohea hills in this province.  Great was my surprise to find all the plants on the tea hills near Foo-chow exactly the same as those in the green tea districts of the north.  Here were, then, green tea plantations on the black tea hills, and not a single plant of the Thea Bohea to be seen.  Moreover, at the time of my visit, the natives were busily employed in the manufacture of black teas.  Although the specific differences of the tea plant were well known to me, I was so much surprised, and I may add amused, at this discovery, that I procured a set of specimens for the herbarium, and also dug up a living plant, which I took northward