Miscellaneous. 357 



forms a fine and delicate kind of young hyson, which is held in 

 high estimation by the natives, and is generally sent about in small 

 quantities as presents to their friends. It is a scarce and expensive 

 article, and the picking of the leaves in such a young state does con- 

 siderable injury to the tea-plantations. The summer rains, however, 

 which fall copiously about this season, moisten the earth and air ; 

 and if the plants are young and vigorous, they soon push out fresh 

 leaves. In a fortnight or three weeks from the time of the first 

 picking, or about the beginning of May, the shrubs are again covered 

 with fresh leaves, and are ready for the second gathering, which 

 is, in fact, the most important of the season. The third and last 

 gathering, which takes place as soon as new leaves are formed, pro- 

 duces a very inferior kind of tea, which, I believe, is rarely sent out 

 of the district. The mode of gathering and preparing the leaves of 

 the tea-plants is extremely simple. We have been so long accus- 

 tomed to magnify and mystify everything relating to the Chinese, 

 that in all their arts and manufactures we expect to find some pe- 

 culiar and out-of-the-way practice, when the fact is, that many ope- 

 rations in China are more simple in their character than in most 

 other parts of the world. To rightly understand the process of roll- 

 ing and drying the leaves, which I am about to describe, it must be 

 borne in mind that the grand object is to expel the moisture, and at 

 the same time to retain as much as possible of the aromatic and other 

 desirable secretions of the species. The system adopted to attain 

 this end is as simple as it is efficacious. In the harvest seasons the 

 natives are seen in little family groups on the side of every hill, 

 when the weather is dry, engaged in gathering the tea-leaves. They 

 do not seem so particular as I imagined they would have been in 

 this oi^eration, but strip the leaves off rapidly and promiscuously, and 

 throw them all into round baskets made for the purpose out of split 

 bamboo or rattan. In the beginning of May, when the principal 

 gathering takes place, the young seed-vessels are about as large as 

 peas. These are also stripped off and dried with the leaves ; it is these 

 seed-vessels which we often see in our tea, and which have some 

 slight resemblance to young capers. When a sufficient quantity of 

 leaves are gathered, they are carried home to the cottage or barn, 

 where the operation of drying is performed. 



This is minutely described, and the author continues : — 

 I have stated that the plants grown in the district of Chekiang 

 produce green teas, but it must not be supposed that they are the 

 green teas which are exported to England. The leaf has a much 

 more natural colour, and has little or none of what we call the ' beau- 

 tiful bloom ' upon it, which is so much admired in Europe and Ame- 

 rica. There is now no doubt that all these 'blooming' green teas which 

 are manufactured at Canton, are dyed with prussian blue and gyp- 

 sum, to suit the taste of the foreign ' barbarians ' : indeed, the process 

 may be seen any day, during the season, by those who will give them- 

 selves the trouble to seek after it. It is very likely that the same 

 ingredients are also used in dyeing the northern green teas for the 

 foreign market; of this, however, I am not quite certain. Theure.is 



