Note {7} — Chapter XLVII

Note 7.—M. Pauthier will have it that Marco was here the discoverer of Assam tea. Assam is, indeed, far out of our range, but his notice of this plant, with the laurel-like leaf and white flower, was brought strongly to my recollection in reading Mr. Cooper’s repeated notices, almost in this region, of the large-leaved tea-tree, with its white flowers; and, again, of “the hills covered with tea-oil trees, all white with flowers.” Still, one does not clearly see why Polo should give tea-trees the name of cloves.