KEW GARDEN MUSEUM. 131 
tionably be considered one of very high importance, affording to millions 
of all nations the drink 
| * that cheers, but not inebriates." 
? Volumes might be, and have been, written on its history. We shall 
, here merely observe that, botanically, two species of Tea are acknow- 
ledged natives of China, Thea viridis (Green Tea), and Thea Bohea x 
(Black Tea); but travellers, and especially Mr. Fortune, have ascertained ld 
that Black and Green Teas of commerce may be made from either or both 
species, according to the modes of preparation. Linschot is said to be 
the first traveller who (about a.p. 1590) speaks of this “herb,” with 
which the Japanese prepare a drink, and which they offer to their guests 
asa mark of high consideration. Caspar Bauhin (about 1623) mentions 
it in his * Pinax" under the name of Cha. It was very early in the 
seventeenth century that Tea first became known in Europe; and we 
are assured that the Dutch at first carried on the trade, by recommend- 
ing the Sage of Europe, whieh they gave in exchange for the Tea of 
China. Lords Arlington and Ossory brought home a quantity of Tea 
from Holland about the year 1666, at which time it sold for sixty 
shillings per pound, though the practice of Tea-drinking in publie coffee- 
houses was not uncommon in London prior to that period; for in 1660 
a duty of 8d. per gallon was laid on the liquor made and sold in all 
coffee-houses. About a century and a half ago, according to Lord 
Macartney, the English East India Company did not sell more than 
50,000 Ibs. of Tea annually, and very little was smuggled. In 1784, 
the consumption of Great Britain was 1,333,814 lbs. :—now that of 
Great Britain and “Ireland, exclusive of the dependencies (1852), 
amounts, according to the Tea Reports, to 54,724,000 lbs. = 
Russia is considered to rank next to Great Britain in its consump- 
tion of Tea. Its trade is however, owing to the proximity of a large 
portion of her dominions, by land. In Asiatic Russia, and still more 
in Tibet, a peculiar Tea is drunk, under the name of Brick-tea, so - 
. — . Called because it is formed into masses or cubes. It is said to be made - 
' .  . . at Fo-kien, and consists of old or coarse damaged leaves and stalks, - 
pressed into moulds, generally with a little bullock's blood, and dried. 
in the sun. It is bruised in a mortar, and boiled down with salt and | 
oil, and sometimes milk, and thickened with flour. = 
The collection of Chinese Teas in the Museum is a very valuable 
one; consisting of 
