The British definitely wanted tea plants so they could grow the crop at home and cut out the trip. They bribed officials to get plants, but since neither the British nor the Chinese knew you couldn't grow tea in Europe the Chinese fooled the barbarians by selling them decorative camellias instead of tea camellias.

The British quickly found they couldn't grow camellias except in green houses (too expensive for producing tea) and that they'd been slipped decoratives anyway. Flower fanciers took to the new plants and started breeding showier varieties. Soon these new varieties were being sold back to flower fanciers in China.