Note 4 — PART THE FIRST.

Authors differ widely respecting the size of this tree. Le Compte says, it grows of various sizes from two feet to two hundred, and sometimes so thick, that two men can scarcely grasp the trunk in their arms: though he afterwards observes, that the Tea-trees, he saw in the province of Fokien, did not exceed five or six feet in height. Journey through the empire of China, London, 1697, 8vo. p. 228. Du Halde quotes a Chinese author, who describes the height of different Tea-trees, from one to thirty feet. Description génerale historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de la Chine, Paris, 1755. Fol. 4 Tom. History of China, London, 1736. 8vo. Vol. IV. page 22. See also Guil. Piso in Itinere Brasilica.

But Kæmpfer, who is chiefly to be depended upon, confines the full growth to about a man’s heighth. Amœn. Exot. Lemgov. 1712, 4to. pag. 605. Probably this may be a just medium; for Osbeck says, that he saw Tea-shrubs in flower-pots, not above an ell high. Voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 247. See also Eckeberg’s account of the Chinese husbandry, Vol. II. p. 303.