1. The plant from which tea is obtained, the tea-shrub: = TEA sb. 3.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Tea, The Tea plant affects valleys, and the feet of mountains, and a stony soil.
1770. Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LX. 525. One of the first tea-plants that has been produced from seed in this kingdom.
1888. J. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 97/2. The tea-plant is cultivated in China as an evergreen shrub.
2. Applied to various other plants: see TEA sb. 6.
1798. Monthly Mag., March, 211. The tea plant of St. Domingo; Capraria biflora,… the leaves of which are employed … for the same purpose as the tea of China and Japan.
1864. Athenæum, 10 Dec., 788/2. Leptospermum, the tea-plant of Australia.
1866. Treas. Bot., 701. L[ycium] barbarum … is commonly known as the Tea plant.
1884. [see TEA-TREE 3].
1903. A. C. P. Haggard, Sporting Yarns, 136 (Canada). The long grass and Labrador tea-plants on the banks.
