242 Mr R. Warrington on the 



fore the Chinese merchant had scarcely a chance of selling 

 his tea, unless he gave it a ' face' that would suit their fancy. 

 The small quantity of the colouring matter used, must pre- 

 clude the idea of adulteration as a matter of profit." Mr J. 

 Reeves states, " that in the East India Company's time, 

 gypsum and Prussian blue were sometimes used upon hyson 

 teas, Tien Hing using the first on his pale, bright hyson ; 

 Lum Hing, the latter on his dark, bright leaf ; but these 

 were only in minute quantities just sufficient to produce a 

 uniform face." 



It is still a question of interest, which I before alluded to, 

 whether the gypsum in its calcined state, is not used for the 

 absorption of the last portions of moisture, and allowing the 

 tea the better to withstand the damp of the sea voyage. 

 Through the kindness of Dr Royle, I have received, since my 

 last communication, a sample of green tea from the Kemaon 

 district, in the Himalayas, which is quite free from any facing, 

 as are also the green trees of Java, a large number of which 

 I have had the opportunity of examining, and which are 

 exceedingly clean and genuine in their appearance and 

 character. 



On Black and Green Teas. 

 Although the preparation of green and black tea from the 

 respective plants, the Thea Viridis and the Thea Bohea, has 

 been warmly advocated by many botanists ; yet it is now, I 

 believe, pretty generally admitted by all parties, that both 

 green and black teas can be, and are made indiscriminately 

 from the same parcel of leaves, taken from the same species 

 of plant. It is also well known to all persons, that the in- 

 fusions from these teas, have marked diiferences of colour 

 and of flavour, and that the effects produced on some con- 

 stitutions by green tea, such as nervous irritability, sleepless- 

 ness, «&c., are very distinct from those of black tea. Their 

 characteristic physical differences are too well known to re- 

 quire any comment, but they have peculiar chemical proper- 

 ties to which we shall have occasion to allude more particu- 

 larly presently, and which have always been attributed by 

 chemists to the effect of high heat in the process of manu- 

 facture. 



