5o8 Voyage of the Novara. 



exportation is chiefly met with on the slopes of the chain of 

 hills between Che-kiang and Ngan-hwui. Besides those de- 

 scriptions actually prepared on the spot where they grow, 

 there are also an immense variety of teas manufactured in 

 Canton from all sorts of black and green tea. The tea- 

 growers of Canton are reputed to colour their green teas arti- 

 ficially, by sprinkling them with a mixture of Prussian blue 

 and pulverized chalk, after which they subject them to a roll- 

 ing motion for a considerable time in heated copper pans.* 



One most important element in tea cultivation is the method 

 adopted to impart a certain bloom, an artificial fragrancy, 

 which it does not possess in the natural state. This process 

 of '' scenting," as it is called, which is practised exclusively 

 for the foreign market, is termed by the Chinese Hiva-hiang. 

 The flowers which are used for imparting this fi^agrance, and 

 the growth of which, like the invisible fields of odoriferous 

 herbs near Cannes, in the South of France, forms a most im- 

 portant branch of cultivation near Canton, are chiefly Jasmi- 

 num smnbac, Jasminum paniculatmn, Aglaia odorata, OleafragranSy 

 Sardenia florida, orange-blossom, and roses. The method of 

 ^' scenting " consists simply in placing a definite quantity of 

 the flower-blossoms, varying according to the strength or 

 feebleness of the odour, in juxta-position with about 100 lbs. 

 of dried tea leaves, where they are suflered to remain from 24 



* According to Fortune ("A Residence among the Chinese." London, 1857. Mur- 

 ray), the various sorts of tea have added to them from two to four spoonfuls of a mixture 

 in which the plant ma-ki-hohj largely enters, as also indigo and pulverized gypsum, 

 in order to increas e the green tinge of the leaves. ; 



