36 Transactions of the 



man, an Arabian merchant, who wrote an account of his travels 

 in the East, about the year A.D. 850 ; and that he had been unable 

 to find any mention of it prior to the times of the Jesuit mission- 

 aries, who entered China and Japan a little before the middle of 

 the sixteenth century. 



Anderson in his ' History of Commerce ' (vol. ii. p. 178), quotes 

 Botero as giving the earliest account in 1590, when he says that 

 they — that is, the Chinese — ' have also an herb out of which they 

 press a delicate juice, which serves them as drink instead of wine.' 

 Texeira, a native of Portugal, about the year 1600, saw the dried 

 leaves of tea at Malacca ; and Olearius found them used in 1633, 

 by the Persians, who obtained them from China through the agency 

 of the Usbeck Tartars. Tulpius in his 'Observ. Medicte,' 1641, 

 speaks of the many virtues of the tea-plant, which he calls thea. 

 Anderson says that no mention is as yet made (1660), in the new 

 book of rates, of tea, coffee, or chocolate, though they are all men- 

 tioned in an Act of Parliament of the same year, whereby a duty 

 of eightpence is charged on every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and 

 tea made for sale. 



The earliest known authentic announcement of the public sale 

 of tea appeared in the Mercurius Politicus for September 30, 

 1658. The following is the advertisement : — ' That excellent and 

 by all Physitians approved China Drink, called by the Chinese 

 Tcha, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is sold at the SultanessHead 

 Cophee-House, in Sweetings Pients, by the Ptoyal Exchange, 

 London.' 



But the use of it at that time must have been new, for Pepys, 

 in his Diary, writes, — 'September 25, 16G1. — I sent for a 

 cup of tea (a Chinese drink), of which I had never drank 

 before.' 



The Dutch East India Company probably first introduced tea 

 into Europe, and from Amsterdam it was brought to London. 



In the year 1662, King Charles II. married Catherine of Bra- 

 ganza, a Portuguese princess, whence. Waller says, ' The best of 

 queens and best of plants we owe to that bold nation.' Tea 

 was, however, brought to this country in small quantities only, 

 for in the year 1664 the East India Company purchased, for the 

 purpose of presenting to the King, Charles II., two pounds and 

 two ounces of tea. In the year 1678, however, they imported 

 4713 lbs. of tea, which was then for the first time thought 

 worth their attention as a branch of their trade. 



The genus Thea, in which the tea-plant is placed, is charac- 

 terised by the calyx consisting of five persistent sepals, with 

 bracts at the base, by the inner or free series of stamens agreeing 

 in number with the petals, and by having only three styles ; 



