Mode of '■'■ sccntmg " Tea. 509 



to 48 hours. Thus 40 lbs. of orange-blossom, 50 lbs. of 

 Jasmin, 100 lbs. of Aglaia odorata, are reckoned the equivalent 

 respectively of 100 lbs. of tea-leaves. The extraordinary 

 costliness of these fragrant blossoms * has caused a very ge- 

 neral suspicion to prevail, that the leaves thus '' scented" are 

 afterwards adulterated with large quantities of the common 

 teas. And as it is an ascertained fact that 60 lbs. of such tea 

 can impart a similar fragrance to 100 lbs. additional by merely 

 mixing the two together, without any apparent diminution of 

 fragrance, it seems more than probable that similar admix- 

 tures, very possibly in a still more profitable proportion, are 

 being silently carried on every day in the warehouses of the 

 tea districts. 



Since the suppression of the East India Company's mono- 

 poly, and the opening of the Five Ports, tea has somewhat 

 fallen in price, but has in consequence gained in far greater 

 ratio in respect of quantity shi2:>ped. The value of a picul of 

 tea is at present about 18 or 20 taels (£5 12^. 6 J. to £6 5^.), 

 so that the pound costs Is. \d. to \s. 2d. Notwithstanding 

 the unexampled cheapness of hand labour (60 to 70 cash, or 

 2\d. to 3t7., per diem), it is not possible to procure good tea be- 

 low this limit, although the various descriptions vary extra- 

 ordinarily in price according to their quality and the districts 

 they come from. The lower classes in the tea districts pur- 

 chase for themselves the raw unprepared leaves just as they 



• A picul, 133^ lbs., of these leaves costs on the average 15 to 18 dollars, though it 

 occasionally ranges as high as 30 dollars. 



