These are quite different species of the same plant. Whether the difference was produced by climate, by soil, or in what way, no one knows, and here we have only to do with the facts that they _do_ differ in every respect. A purely indigenous plant or tree (for in its wild state it may more properly be called the latter) grows with one stem or trunk, and runs up to 15 and 18 feet high. It is always found in thick jungle, and would thus appear to like shade. I believe it does when young; but I am quite sure, if the jungle were cleared round an indigenous Tea-tree found in the forest, it would thrive better from that day. The China bush (for it is never more) after the second year has numerous stems, and 6 or 7 feet would seem to be its limit in height. The lowest branches of a China plant are close to the ground, but in a pure cultivated indigenous, from 9 inches to 1 foot above the soil the single stem is clean.
The indigenous grows quicker after the second or third year than the China, if it has not been over-pruned or over-plucked when young. In other words, it flushes quicker, for flushing is growing.
The indigenous does not run so much to wood as the China. Indigenous seedlings require to be watered oftener than China, for the latter do not suffer as quickly from drought. The indigenous tree has a leaf of 9 inches long and more. The leaf of the China bush never exceeds 4 inches. The indigenous leaf is a bright pale green, the China leaf a dull dark green colour. The indigenous “flushes,” that is, produces new tender leaf, much more copiously than the China, and this in two ways: _first_, the leaves are larger, and thus if only even in number exceed in bulk what the China has given; and _secondly_, it flushes oftener. The infusion of Tea made from the indigenous species is far more “rasping” and “pungent” than what the China plant can give, and the Tea commands a much higher price. The young leaves, from which alone Tea is made, are of a much finer and softer texture in the indigenous than in the China; the former may be compared to satin, the latter to leather. The young leaves of the indigenous, moreover, do not harden so quickly as those of the China; thus, if there is any unavoidable delay in picking a flush, the loss is less with the former. In the fact that unpruned or unpicked plants (for picking is a miniature pruning) give fewer and less succulent young leaves which harden quicker than pruned ones, the two varieties would seem to be alike. The China variety is much more prolific of seed than the indigenous; the former also gives it when younger, and as seed checks leaf, the China is inferior in this as in other respects. The China is by far the hardier plant; it is much easier to rear, and it will grow in widely differing climates, which the indigenous will not.
