10 REPonT OP M. gutlle:\iin. 



ence tliat struck me in the mode here adopted, was, that the 

 tender, flexible, and not brittle leaves, were gathered with 

 the petiole and tip extremity of every bud, and that some 

 water was put with them into the iron pan, in which the 

 negresses twisted, squeezed, broke, and shook the masses of 

 foliage. The operation was, on the whole, more neatly per- 

 formed than at Rio. When the Tea was perfectly dry and 

 removed from the pan, it was placed aside in a box, shaded 

 from the air and light, and was considered ready for present 

 use, on the spot ; but M. Feijo informed me, that when sent 

 to a distance, the cases were hermetically closed, and the Tea 

 underwent an extra desiccation over the fire. 



The plantations belonging to M. Feijo, and surrounding 

 his Chagara, are extensive, containing about 20,000 Tea 

 shrubs, of fine growth and in high vigour, most of them six 

 or eight years old, set in regular lines, a metre asunder from 

 each other, and the lines with a metre and a half betwixt 

 them. The soil is excellent, argillaceo-ferrugineous, as is 

 generally the case near St Paul. On another part of M. 

 Feijo's property I noticed a complete set of European 

 ploughs, and other agricultural instruments. 



In the Botanic Garden at St Paul, some squares are 

 devoted to the fjrovvth of Tea ; but I am not aware that the 

 leaves are ever subjected to preparation. 



M. da Luz had invited us to inspect his Tea grounds near 

 Nossa Seuhora da Penha, and I went thither, accompanied 

 by Messrs Barandier and Hon let. The cultivation is admir- 

 able, the soil excellent, and the Tea plants peculiarly vigor- 

 ous. Each shrub was so placed that a man can easily go all 

 round it, and young plants, self-sown, were springing up 

 below every old one ; of these ofF-sets I was made welcome 

 to as many as I could take away, and should have had a 

 great stock, but that the ground had been very recently 

 cleared. M. da Luz showed me his magazines of prepared 

 Tea, which were extensive and well-stocked. 



Hence I went to the property of a lady, Donna Gertrude 

 Gedizo e Lacerda, situated at the foot of the Jarigua, a 



