The special taxonomic problems posed by the tea plant are not generally known, nor was their satisfactory resolution apparent when they were first investigated at Tocklai. A classical system of nomenclature does not deal adequately with the cultivatedtea plant. Populations of tea bushes, nominally referred to as Camellia sinensis L., which are used for the manufacture of tea, have a life of half century or more. In India they are raised from seed produced in orchards of phenotypically mixed trees ofthe crossbred origin described by Hunter and Leake3. This origin probably stems from earlier species hybrids. A seed orchard is perennial, and thus genetically similar progenies of various ages come to be widely dispersed among numerous tea estates; but the orchard itself may have been forgotten or destroyed. The relative frequency of phenotypes differs greatly between progenies of disparate orchards.
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