ABSTRACT
Linneus (1753) in his “Species Plantarum” (1st ed.) nominated Camellia cultivated in Japan and the tea plants cultivated in China and Japan as Camellia japonica and Thea sinensis, respectively. The nomenclature of Camellia was for the memory of G.J.Kamel (1661-1706), or Camellus, a Moravian Jesuit traveller in Asia, while Thea from the transliteration of Fijian’s dialect of tea. In 18th century, Camellia and Thea were widely accepted as two separated genera, but latterly were united for the first time by Sweet (1818), who selected the name Camellia L. for the combined genera. Until the fifth decade of the twentieth century, the concept of the genus Camellia sensu lato was more popularized, and Thea sinensis L. was recombined by O.Kuntze (1887) as Camellia sinensis (L.) O.Kuntze.
