POLTAXDUrA. 



Avr.s bronght to England from Holland about tlie }'ear 

 lOUi), by Lord Arlington and Lord Ossery, from 

 whom it soon became known to ihc people of fashion, 

 and its use ever since has become general. In China 

 the use of tea is derived from very remote antiquity, 

 and is so universal among all ranks of people in that 

 rast empire, that, we are assured by Sir Geo. Staunton, 

 if the Europeans were entirely to cease from trading 

 in it, it would very little alfect the price of tea in 

 China, though, according to Dr. Lettsoms Tables, it 

 a])pears that the quantity of tea imported into Europe 

 from ]776 to 1791, amounted annually to 15, 29, 25, 

 20, and even to 36 millions of pounds. 



John Ellis, Esq. well known for his excellent 

 works on corals and corallines, previous to the year 

 l/dy, set several tea seeds, sent to him from China, 

 in pots in the open air in London, from which he 

 raised cnt; p'ant: and this was probably the first tea 

 plant ever raised in England. In the year 1 //I , a tea 

 tree blossomed for the first time in England, at Sion 

 House, in the months of October and November. '^ 



c The leaves and youns; stems of a tree of a very different 

 kin-l to the Tea-tree of the East, are excUi ively used as Tea 

 in Paruroay and Chili The tree is but little knovn in Europe, 

 thoujth of the first importance in that p irt of Suuth America. 

 It is described by Azara to be of the si;^e of a mddling Orange- 

 trte, and by his cdiror Walckenaer supposed to be the Psomiea 

 p,'at:Julosa of Lii nzeu-;. I have chewed the leaves and dryed 

 stemi- bruised togcthe' of thi- Paraguay tea, and the ta«;tt is as 

 agreeable as our oriental tea, taslcd in ihc same way. For the 



