668 



orange-coloured vegetable substance,' wbicli Mr. W. does not other- 

 wise name. That the colouring is not intended as an adulteration, I 

 feel quite sure. It is given to suit the capricious taste of the foreign 

 buyers, who judge of an article used as a drink by the eye instead of 

 the palate. You well know how little the London dealers, even now, 

 like the yellowish appearance of uncoloured green tea. The Ameri- 

 cans, a few years since, carried the dislike even further than the Eng- 

 lish, and therefore the Chinese merchant had scarcely a chance of 

 selling his tea unless he gave it a ' face ' that would suit their fancy. 

 The small quantity of the colouring matter used, must preclude the 

 idea of adulteration as a matter of profit." Mr. J. Keeves states, 

 " that in the East India Company's time, gypsum and Prussian blue 

 were sometimes used upon hyson teas, Tien Hing using the first on 

 his pale, bright hyson; Lum Hing, the latter on his dark, bright leaf; 

 but these were only in minute quantities, just sufficient to produce an 

 uniform face." 



It is still a question of interest, which I before alluded to, whether 

 the gypsum, in its calcined state, is not used for the absorption of the 

 last portions of moisture, and allowing the tea the better to withstand 

 the damp of the sea voyage. Through the kindness of Dr. Eoyle, I 

 have received, since my last communication, a sample of green tea 

 from the Kemaon district, in the Himalayas, which is quite free from 

 any facing, as are also the green teas of Java, a large number of which 

 I have had the opportunity of examining, and which are exceedingly 

 clean and genuine in their appearance and characters. 



On Black and Green Teas. 



Although the preparation of green and black tea from the respective 

 plants, the Thea viridis and the Thea Bohea, has been warmly ad- 

 vocated by many botanists, yet it is now, I believe, pretty generally 

 admitted by all parties, that both green and black teas can be and 

 are made indiscriminately from the same parcel of leaves, taken from 

 the same species of plant. It is also well known to all persons, that 

 the infusions from these teas have marked differences of colour and of 

 flavour, and that the effects produced on some constitutions by green 

 tea, such as nervous irritability, sleeplessness, &c., are very distinct 

 from those produced by black tea. Their characteristic physical dif- 

 ferences are too well known to require any comment, but they have 

 peculiar chemical qualities to which we shall have occasion to allude 

 more particularly presently, and which have always been attributed 

 by chemists to the effect of high heat in the process of manufacture. 



