Davis argues that they constitute two _genera_, closely allied but yet different, the distinctions consisting principally in the fruit or seed. The seed-vessel of the _Thea_ being a three-lobed capsule, with the lobes strongly marked, each the size of a currant, containing only a single round seed, the lobes bursting vertically in the middle when ripe, exposing the seed. The capsule of the _Camillia_ is triangular in shape, much larger in size, and though three-celled is but single-seeded. Bentham and Hooker, who have thoroughly revised the “_genera plantatum_,” say they can find no good reason by which they can separate the Tea-plant as a genus distinct from the Camillia, and so class it as _Thea-Camillia_. While Cambesedes contends that they are widely separated by several intervening genera, the difference being entirely in the form of the fruit or pod; and Griffin, who is well qualified to form a correct opinion, states that, from an examination of the India Tea-plant and two species of the Camillia taken from the Kyosa hills, he found no difference whatever. The dehiscence in both plants is of the same nature, the only noticeable difference really existing being of a simply specific value. The fruit of the Tea-shrub is three-celled and three-seeded while that of the Camillia is triangular in form and single-seeded only. Linnæus, while recognizing the Tea-plant as belonging to the same family as the Camillia, Latinizes its Chinese name, classing it as _Thea Sinensis_, and dividing it into two species—_Thea Viridis_ and _Thea Bohea_; DeCandolle, while indorsing Linnæus’ classification, adds that “in the eighteenth century when the shrub which produces tea was little known Linnæus named the genus Thea Sinensis, but later judged it better to distinguish two species which he believed at the time to correspond with the distinctions existing between the Green and Black teas of commerce.” The latest works on botany, also, make Thea a distinct genus—_Thea Sinensis_—divided into two species—_Thea Viridis_ and _Thea Bohea_—these botanical terms having no specific relation to the varieties known to commerce as Green and Black teas. It having also been proven that there is but one species comprehending both varieties, the difference in color and character being due to a variation in the soil, climate, as well as to different methods of cultivation and curing, from either or both of which Green or Black tea may be prepared at will according to the process of manufacture. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: _Thea Sinensis._ (Chinese Tea Plant.) ]