688 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1887. 



as the beginning of the secondary period in Europe 

 which cannot be much less than from 15 to 20 mil- 

 lions of jears such yamias grew in England. They 

 are among the most characteristic forms of the fossil 

 flora, of the Lias and the Oolitic formations ; and in 

 liie celebrated ''Dirt tied " at Tortland, in Dorsetshire, 

 their scarred and dumpy stems (all petrified) are so 

 common that the ([uarrymen call them " crow's nests. " 

 I have seen them in the fossil state, just as they 

 grew years ago, many a time — now I was looking upon 

 the lineal descendants of the stme group in the un- 

 cleared part of an Australian forest. My readers will 

 imderstand how in this way, many of the Australian 

 plants possess an interest for the geologist second to 

 those of no other country in the world, inasmuch as 

 numbers of them are the survivors of «, flora which 

 lias been crushed out of existence by new-comers, 

 and whose r*!mains are therefore only found in the 

 fossil state in the old werld. — Australasian. 



ABOUT GREEN TEA. 



To the large majority of modern English men 

 and women green tea is probably little more than 

 a namo, calling up, it may be, vague visions of old- 

 fashioned tea-parties and elderly ladies in turbans, 

 and wheezy lap dogs and card-tables. It is certainly 

 true that in England the day of green tea, with its 

 mysterious subdivisions, Twankay, Hyson-skin, Young 

 Hyson, and Gunpowder, is over. Possibly it has 

 succumbed tardily to the prejudice which in the 

 last century denounced tea-drinking as a pernicious 

 habit, leading inevitably to dram-drinking and to 

 other ills more numerous and more deadly than 

 those which Mr. Arthur Arnold attributes to tobacco. 

 The effects of green tea upon the nerves are known 

 to be more powerful than those of black tea, and 

 for this reason it may have attracted to itself the 

 bulk of the odium against tea-drinking, which has 

 proved quite powerless to impair the influence of its 

 sturdier brother. Another explanation for its decline 

 in favour may be found in the fact that green tea 

 is much more the subject of adulteration than black 

 tea. The latter is by no means always above sus- 

 picion. We read of a horrible confection prepared 

 out of the refuse of tea and the decayed leaves and 

 twigs, which is pressed into moulds, and, with a 

 little sheep or ox blood added to stifl'eu the mass 

 and perhaps make it palatable, is sold as brick tea. 

 It is some consolation to learn that this variety is 

 chiefly consumed in Northern China and Thibet. 

 Then, again, there is a highly-prized commodity 

 known by the name — given to it with an admirable 

 candour by the Chinese — of Lie-tea. This consists 

 of the sweepings and dust of the tea warehouses, 

 cemented together with rice-water and rolled into 

 grains ; and its peculiar mercantile value lies m a 

 certain pliability whereby, at the will of the oper- 

 ator, it may be converted into either black or green 

 tea, as may be required. 



Nor are these the only ways in which the ingenuity 

 of tea adulterators has shown itself ; black lead, 

 turmeric, and mica; leaves of the beech, elm, horse- 

 chestnut, plane, willow, poplar, hawthorn, and sloe, 

 with the humbler harvest of the hedgerow ; all these 

 and more have been freely spoken of in connection 

 with black tea. But though black tea may have its 

 foibles, green tea has long been the established and 

 recognized medium for introducing into the human 

 system such substances as Prussian blue, China clay, 

 and talc. Adulteration is far more common in green 

 than in black tea ; in fact, it may almost be said 

 that whereas adulteration in the latter case is ex- 

 ceptional, in the former it is universal, and that 

 practically no samples of green tea are brought into 

 the market which have not been artificially coloured. 

 The blame for this (if blame there be) lies, in a 

 great measure not witu the manufacturers, but with 

 the public. For some reason mankind, when they 

 like green at all, have been found in all ages to like 

 it greener than nature has made it. This being so, 

 the tea manufacturer steps forward with his spoon 

 ful of indigo and soapstoue, and supplies the defi 

 ciency. Tea which is not treated in this way would 

 uot be looked at by the dealers, who know the 



public and its tastes. After all, the adulteration is 

 a very harmless one ; even in the bad old days, when 

 Prussian blue and sulphate of liine were used, it is 

 questioned whether the minute quantity employed 

 can have had any injurious effects upon tea-drinkers; 

 and in the present day there is certainly nothing 

 to be feared from the materials used in colouring 

 the tea for the market. 



The principal market for green tea is the United 

 States. Having fallen rather into disrepute in the 

 Old World, it has established itself in the New 

 World, where it is largely consumed and known as 

 "tea" simply, in contradistinction to " English break 

 fast tea," by which name the black teas are desig- 

 nated. The reason for its popularity is no doubt 

 in a great measure due to the intercourse with 

 Japan, where green tea alone is manufactured, and 

 which every year sends enormous cargoes across the 

 Pacific In the making of tea, as in everything 

 which this curious people do, the Japanese have a 

 way of their »wn. It would startle an Assam planter 

 to see them in picking time squatting down before 

 the trees and stripping the branches of the leaves, 

 instead of scientitically selecting only the young 

 undeveloped leaf, the first leaf below that, and half 

 the second, from which would be evolved respect- 

 ively " Orange Pekoe,' " Pekoe," and " Souchong." 

 Any one accustomed to the elaborate machines tor 

 "rolling" and "firing' the leaves, which are in use 

 on European plantations, might be amused at the 

 Japanese method, where the workers roll and squeeze 

 and twist the leaves in their hands on a parchment 

 stretched over a charcoal fire. Very fine teas are 

 nevertheless manufactured by the Japanese, and in 

 the celebrated district of Uji rumour tells of tea 

 worth 10 dols. per pound, though it is not definitely 

 stated whether that price has ever actually been 

 paid for it. Moreover, in the case of teas intended 

 for export, only so much work is done upon them 

 as will enable them to be sent to the " tea-firing 

 godowns ' of Yokohama, where they are worked 

 up for the market before being shipped. 



As is now wei! kiiDwu, the difference between 

 green tea and black lies in the fact that in the 

 former fermentation has been arrested by " firing," 

 the colour of the leaf being in this way partially 

 preserved and fixed with the latter by a much 

 longer process ; fermentation up to a certain point 

 is permitted, and the leaves are not "fired" until 

 they have become oxidized by exposure to the air. 

 In Japan the leaves, after being picked and " wither- 

 ed " by a short exposure, and fired in the way de- 

 scribed above sufficiently to stop fermentation, and 

 in this partially cured state are sent to the Euro- 

 pean tea-merchants, by whom they are again "fired." 

 In the "godowns" of Y'okohama hundreds of wo- 

 men can be Keen at work turning the leaves over 

 and over and round and round in large basins built 

 over a charcoal fire. The colouring or "painting" 

 IS also done at this period by means of a spoonful 

 of indigo and powdered soapstone put into each 

 basin, and thus disseminated through its contents. 

 But in Japan tea is not grown for export only, but 

 is the chief article of home consumption ; and these 

 domestic teas as procured in the country are prob- 

 ably the only samples of unadulterated green tea 

 which Europeans are likely to meet with. They 

 produce a beverage which is refreshing, quite harm- 

 less, and which, notwithstanding the way in which 

 it is prepared, can after only a short residence in 

 the country be readily distinguished from hot water. 

 — LeLoia <(; Co.'ti Tea Trade Circular. 



" A NEW iNDCSTBY," the Garden says, " had just been 

 started in East Kent— that of growing crops of laven- 

 der and peppermint for the purpose of extracting the 

 oil and supplying it wholesale. A large breadth of land 

 at Grove, near Canterbury, has been planted with 

 lavender and peppermint by way of experiment, and 

 the result has proved in every way satisfactory. It 

 has, therefore, been determined to establish extensive 

 works on the spot, ia order to carry on the process 

 of extracting the oil from these plants, neither of 

 which, ic is stated, has ever boeu cultivated before 

 iu Kent."— ^MS</'«^t«H' 



