666 



THE fRQPICAL AGBICULtURlST. 



[March r, 18S4. 



ilarker brown, but it changes to deep brown, sometimes i 

 til almost black. Cocoa-wood is macli used for turnery 

 of all kiuds and for llutes ; it is excellent for eccentric 

 turning, and in that respect is next to the African Black- 

 wood. An apparent variety of Cocoa-wood, from 2 to 6 

 or 7 inches in diameter, with a large proportion of hard 

 sap, of the colour of Beech-wood, and heartwood of a 

 clie.stuot^brown colour, is used for tree-uails and pins for 

 ship work, and purposes similar to Lignum- Yitse, to which 

 it bears some resemblance, although it is much smaller, 

 has a rough bark, the sap is more red, and the heart 

 darker and more handsomely coloured when first opened 

 than Lignum-Vitffi ; it is intermediate between it and Cocoa- 

 wood. Another, Imt inferior wood, exactly agrees with 

 the ordinary Cocoa-wood, but that the heart is in wavy 

 rings, alternately hard and soft." 



The above is all that was known of Cocus or Cocoa- 

 wootl when HoUzapfel's little book was pubUshed in 1852, 

 and since then we have by no means satisfactorily cleared 

 up this point. The writer of the article quoted above 

 says ; — *• It is really singular that the exact localities and 

 the botanical name of the Cocoa-wood that is so much 

 used should be uncertain ; it appears to come from a 

 country producing sugar, being often imported as dimnage, 

 or the stowage upon which the sugar hogsheads are packed. 

 It is also known as Brown Ebony, but the Amerimuum 

 Ebenns of Jamaica seems dissimilar." 



The Amerimuum Ebenns of Swartz is now referred to 

 Brya Ebenns of DC, and the wood of this plant, which 

 is known in Jamaica as Green Ebony, is now credited 

 with furnishing the Oocus-wood of commerce. The woods, 

 indeed, upon com])arison are almost identical except in 

 coloiu", the Cocus-wood being somewhat darker, but this 

 maj' be due to the wood being older, and pei'haps selected 

 on account of its deeper colour, for the darker the colour 

 is for flutes the more higlily it seems to be valued, its 

 principal competitor in the market for this purpose being 

 a still darker colom-ed wood known as Airican Black- 

 wood, the botanical source of which has not yet even been 

 guessed at. 



Another wood, so similar to Cocus-wood that it is diffic- 

 ult, it not impossible, to distmguish it, is furnished by 

 a Euphorbiaceous tree of Xorthern and Eastern Bengal 

 and I5irma, gnown as Kokra-wood, and fm-uished by Apo- 

 rosa dioica, Mull. Arg. ( Lepidostachys Roxburghii. Wall.) 

 The similarity of the Bengalese name, Koki'a, with the 

 commercial name, Cocus. or Cocoa as it was formerly 

 spelt, is so remarkable that it would seem to point to 

 them as being one and the same thing, and the question 

 then arises whether, instead of Cocus-wood coming from 

 the West Indies it does not in reality come from the East. 

 Gamble, indeed, in his Manifol of Indian Timbers, says 

 (p. 355) : — " This last (Aporosa dioica) has been identified 

 with the tree producmg the ' Coco-wood ' of commerce, 

 generally supposed to come from the West Indies." Gam- 

 ble further says : — " The wood of Aporosa dioica should be 

 carefully examined to prove that the ln<lian tree gives a 

 timber similar to Coco-wood." A comparison of the two 

 woods contained iu the Kew iluseum proves their similarity. 

 — JoHK K. Jacksos, Museum. Kew. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



TEA. 



.V'-cording to some authorities, tea began to be drunk 

 in Ihe Liang dynasty, at the beginning of the sixth centm-y. 

 But it was earlier than this according to other accounts 

 that tea came into use, and in the time of the Three 

 Kingdoms, in the third century, it is spoken of as a sub- 

 stitute for wine. There are three kinds of drinlis accord- 

 ing to the Chinese theory. To quench the thirst, says 

 an ancient writer, you take rice w.ater, or those prepared 

 drinks called Tsituu/. To drown sorrow you take wine, by 

 which he means the brewed yellow wine of antiquity. To 

 refresh the body when fati^^ued, and take away drowsiness, 

 you drink tea. Thisis the way in which the matter appeared 

 to Lu Yd, who about a thousand years ago wrote the cmious 

 book on Tea, c.iUed CU'a-ching. This book may be recom- 

 m "ided to those who wish to make inquiries respecting 

 early methods of preparing tea and ;be domestic usages 

 of ancient China. It is also rich in legends and stories 

 of what those who plucked tea in each famous mountain 



met with of an extraordinary nature, from the time of 

 the Divine Husbandman down to the days of blue jackets 

 and wadded cotton gowns. 



Tea was taken as a medicine before it was a daily 

 beverage. The use of this now inestimable article of daily 

 consumption began with the efforts of the healers of 

 diseases to assuage human pain by administering infusions 

 of leaves. Tea is early mentioned with examples of its 

 healing powers. Four or five cups of this infusion will 

 cure headache, restore vigour to drooping eyes, and re-establish 

 the bodily frame when faint. Its invigorating nature is 

 compared to that of wine, and to the nectar of the genii 

 known as Kan-li'.. It is also classed with Ginseng on account 

 of the valuable properties of that root, which then, in 

 the days of the author of the Book on Tea, was, as now, 

 a famous product of Corea and of Manchiu-ia, as w-ell as 

 of Chihli. The Emperor Wen-ti of the Sui dynasty dreamed 

 on one occasion, it is said, that a god changed his skull- 

 bone, and from that time he had headache. L'uexpectedly 

 he met a Buddhist priest who told him that there was 

 in the mountains a plant called Ming. If he boiled some 

 of this plant and ate it, he would be well. The Emperor 

 followed this advice and was completely cured. Prom that 

 time forward the people strove each man more than his 

 neighbour to pluck tea-leaves, infuse them, and drink the 

 tea as a medicinal beverage. Tea was anciently described 

 as a cooling bitter without any injurious quality. It was 

 regarded as a specific for large swellings and ulcers, and 

 as useful for removing phlegm, thirst, and inflammation. 

 The autumn tea, which is more bitter than sjn-ing tea, is 

 recommended as beneficial for removing indigestion. It 

 will prevent sleep, and therefore may be taken to cure drow- 

 siness as also to increase the vigour of the thinking faculty. 

 In other words it is a mild stimulant. Beside these milder 

 medicinal effects it has been employed vnth advantage as 

 an antidote to arsenic when taken as a poison. A strong 

 infusion of tea dissolves in the stomach both arsenic and 

 tartarised antimony. But it must be verj- early administered 

 to have this beneficial effect. If opium poi.soning is attacked 

 energetically, and the chief portion of the opium removed 

 by pumping, tea has proved very helpful in overcoming 

 the secondary symptoms. Its tannin has a decomposing 

 effect on substances diflicult to dissolve and dissipa'.c. Tea, 

 being in some respects a stimulant, is in oth r respects 

 a sedative, as is the case with other stimulants. Were it 

 not for its sedative qualities it could not have attained 

 its unexampled popularity. 



In the year 1835 the export of tea from China was about 

 two hundred and sixty thousand piculs. In the year 1871 

 it was a million piculs aud three quarters. Last year it 

 was over two million piculs. Such is the wonderful pro- 

 gress of tea-cultivation that China may both hope and fear 

 on account of her trade. She might fear that Assam, Japan 

 and other tea-growing countries may limit her market, 

 and diminish her gains. But her hope may well dominate 

 over her fear, because the extension of tea consumption 

 advances with such amazing r.apidity that China h.as enough 

 to do to increase her tea plantations suificieutly fast to 

 keep pace with the demands made upon her. Her western 

 and central provinces constitute the mother country of the 

 Tea tree, and the climate of that region suits its con- 

 stitution to a hair. At the time when the dictionary 

 Kuang-ya was written, or about th.e fourth century, the 

 people of Pa and King, or the modern Szechuan aud Hunan, 

 were accustomed to make *• brick tea," or rather cakes of 

 tea-leaves. These were mi.\ed with rice-cakes and boiled 

 so as to produce a red liquid. The bitter was toned down 

 by ginger and orange jjeel. It was then used as a stimulant. 

 From all this it may be deduced that black tea, which the 

 Chinese call red tea, came into use before green tea, and 

 that it was thirteen or fourteeu hundred years ago when 

 the inhabitants of southern and western China began to 

 find out the excellence of the infusion made from the leaves 

 of the shrub which they called Ming, or Ch'a or Kia. It 

 was a long time before it became universally adopted, and 

 as a mode of preparing the article for sale, brick tea was 

 known before, or at least quite as soon as, the modern 

 packet of loose leaves. It was common then to hear of 

 Ch'a-pingor Ping-ch'a. These two modes of speaking ditt'ered 

 in their sense in a way similar to the difference of meaning 

 when we say "chocolate cakes" or " cake chocolate " — iV— 



C. Herald. 



