134 Mr Bruce on the Manufacture of Tea, and on the 



that the China plants now at Deenjoij would never have at- 

 tained to half the perfection they noAV have, under ten years 

 in their own country. 



I may here observe, that the sun has a material effect on 

 the leaves ; for as soon as the trees that shade the plants are 

 removed, the leaf, from a fine deep green, begins to turn into 

 a yellowish colovir, which it retains for some months, and then 

 again gradually changes to a healthy gi-een, but now becomes 

 thicker, and the plant throws out far more numerous leaves 

 than when in the shade. The more the leaves are plucked, the 

 greater number of them are produced ; if the leaves of the first 

 crop were not gathered, you might look in vain for the leaves of 

 the second crop. The tea made from the leaves in the shade, 

 is not near so good as that from leaves exposed to the sun ; 

 the leaves of plants in the sun, are much earlier in season 

 than of those in the shade ; the leaves from the shady tract 

 give out a more watery liquid when rolled, and those from the 

 sunny a more glutinous substance. When the leaves -of either 

 are rolled on a sunny day, they emit less of this liquid than 

 on a rainy day. This juice decreases as the season advances. 

 The plants in the sun have flowers and fruit much earlier than 

 those in the shade, and are far more numerous ; they have 

 flowers and seeds in July, and fruit in November. Numerous 

 plants are to be seen, that, by some accident, either cold or 

 rain, have lost all their flowers, and commence throwing out 

 fresh flower-buds more abundantly than ever. Thus it is not 

 unfrequent to see some plants in flower so late as March 

 (some of the China plants were in flower in April), bearing 

 at once the old and the new seeds, flower-buds, and full-bloAvn 

 flowers, — all at one and the same time. The rain also greatly 

 affects the leaves, for some sorts of tea cannot be made in a 

 rainy day ; for instance the Fowchong and Mingehew. The 

 leaves for these ought to be collected about 10 a. m. on a sun- 

 ny morning, when the dew has evaporated. The Fowchong 

 can only be manufactured from the leaves of the first crop ; 

 but the Mingehew, although it requires the same care in mak- 

 ing as the other, can yet be made from any crop, provided it 

 is made on a sunny morning. The Chinese dislike gathering 

 leaves on a rainy day for any description of tea, and never 



