Considerable discussion has taken place regarding the tea plants; some say that there is only one species; others that there are two or three.  Mr. Fortune, who visited the tea districts of Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang, asserts that the black and green teas of the northern districts of China are obtained from the same species or variety, known under the name of Thea Bohea.  Some make the Assam tea a different species, and thus recognise three:  T.  Cantoniensis or Bohea, T.  Viridis, and T.  Assamica.  The quality of the tea depends much on the season when the leaves are picked, the mode in which it is prepared, as well as the district in which it grows.  The green teas include Twankay, Young Hyson, Hyson, Gunpowder, and Imperial; while the black comprise Bohea, Congou, Souchong, Oolong, and Pekoe.  The teas of certain districts, such as Anhoi, have peculiar characters.

The first tea imported into England was a package of two pounds, by the East India Company, in 1664, as a present to the king; in 1667, another small importation took place, from the company’s factory at Bantam.  The directors ordered their servants to “send home by their ships 100 pounds weight of the best tey they could get.”  In 1678 were imported 4,713 lbs.; but in the six following years the entire imports amounted to no more than 410 lbs.  According to Milburn’s “Oriental Commerce,” the consumption in 1711 was 141,995 lbs.; 120,595 lbs. in 1715, and 237,904 lbs. in 1720.  In 1745 the amount was 730,729 lbs.  For above a century and a half, the sole object of the East India Company’s trade with China was to provide tea for the consumption of the United Kingdom.  The company had the exclusive trade, and were bound to send orders for tea, and to provide ships to import the same, and always to have a year’s consumption in their warehouses.  The teas were disposed of in London, where only they could be imported, at quarterly sales.  The act of 1834, however, threw open the trade to China.

From a Parliamentary return, showing the quantity of tea retained for home consumption in the United Kingdom, in each year, from 1740 to the termination of the East India Company’s sales, and thence to the present time, it appears that in 1740, 1,493,695 lbs. of tea were retained for home consumption.  Two years afterwards, the quantity fell to 473,868 lbs., and in 1767 only 215,019 lbs. were retained.  Next year the amount increased to 3,155,417 lbs.; in 1769 it was 9,114,854 lbs.; in 1795, 21,342,845 lbs.; in 1836, 49,842,236 lbs.

The return in question also specifies the quantity of the various kinds of tea, with the average sale prices.

According to the annual tea reports of Messrs. W.J.  Thompson and Son, and Messrs. W.E.  Franks and Son, the total imports of tea during the last fifteen years were as follows, reckoned in millions of lbs.:—­