THE 



'287 



THE 



1o excessive nioii-.'.ure. As tea-plants are capable of 

 bearing considerable varieties of temperature, tea may 

 no doubt be cultivated in a variety of situations, and 

 in Assam as well as elsewhere, but it is probable 

 that hilly situations and the more open and elevated 

 parts of "Assam its.' 1 ! 1 will be best suited for the pro- 

 duction of the finer-flavoured teas. The tea which has 

 been prepared in Assam has now been sent for four years 

 to market, and in each year the quantities have increased 

 and the qualities have improved. For the teas first sold 

 in 1839, from the excitement and competition created by 

 the novelty of the sale, extravagant prices were paid, as 

 from KJ-. to 34. a pound. In 1840 the prices realized 

 'toot (K. ID//, to 10*. 10 J-. The probable value was 

 :ver from 2y. lid. to 3.?. 3rf. The produce of 1841 in 

 the government plantations has been sold in Calcutta, 

 and that from the Assam Tea Company sent to this country. 

 reports have been published by brokers of 

 the quality of this tea, and of the probability, from its 

 >:th, that it may easily be improved as its nature is 

 better understood. Experimental nurseries continue to be 

 carried on by the East India Company, and much useful 

 information of a practical nature will no doubt be ob- 

 tained and promulgated. So many authors have written 

 on the subject of tea, that it is impossible to quote them. 

 Dr. Lettsom. in his account of the tea-plant, has given a 

 i them. More recent information may be found in 

 the ti . .lie], Staunton, Ellis, Barrow and for scien- 



tific information sec Uoyle, ' Illustr. of Himalayan Botany,' 

 and Ks-ay on the Productive Resources of India,' also the 

 rs. Griffith and MacCleland, in the 'Trans. 

 ;'-leutta,' whichlikewise contain the re- 

 brokers. For practical information on the nianu- 

 \if of tea, the papers of Mr. Bruce give much valuable 

 i, derived from the China tea-makers; also the 

 i lie Cultivation and Manufacture ol'Tea in Java,' 



om the Dutch by Dr. Horsfi eld. 



THEA. ,'/Vo/v ///>.? of Tea. This 



of which was for a long time confined to 



two countries of the East, China and Japan, has within the 



last two hundred years become known and almost indis- 



ivilized country of the globe. It is 



'uleresting to enquire what are the properties it 



possesses, which have induced so large a portion of the 



in race to forsake other articles of diet, and what are 



the effects of-its extensive consumption. 



Whether obtained from one species only of the genus 

 Thca, or from several, all the tea of China is in commerce 

 brought under two distinct terms. _<-;< r// ira ami I'lm-h tea, 



iier brown tea. These are also distinguish 

 and brjhea. The European name tfit is borrowed from the 

 common language of the province Fu-kian CFokien of 

 ille;, where this article is called Tiii in their patois : 

 :i<mi it is called Tsc-ha or Tschai. Black 

 called He-tscha, green tea Lo-tscha. The best sort of the 

 , kind lias been long known in commerce under the 

 name of Bou-ui-Tscha ; hence by a transposi- 

 tion of the syllables, the Thea bohea of LimUBUC, the 

 :ha of the Chinese, that is. tea from Vou-y-Schan, 

 i is in the province of Fu-kian, in 27 47 N. lat. 

 hiefly obtained from Song-lo, which lies in the 

 province of Kiang-nan, in 29 58' N. lat. 



The subvarieties owe their names to other circumstances, 



the number of which is endless. Thus there occur in the 



merchants at least one hundred 



and fifty names, many of which are synonymes of other 

 . or names invented to impose on foreigners and ob- 

 tain a high price. The distinguished Oriental scholar 

 Klaproth gives a list of about forty genuine varieties, 

 Viitli an explanation 1 of the terms applied to them. iJiinr- 

 1824, p. 121, and Abel Remusat. a Supple- 

 ment to it, p. 186 of the same journal; or Fee, Cnura 

 Pharnmrrutiqu'', i., p. 507.) Thus 

 Ho, corrupted into Pekoe, or even Pekin, merely means 

 ,s n," being the first sprouts, or yet hairy leaf-buds 

 plants, three years old, after their first i' 

 ing. With us it is applied only to a black tea, but it is 

 equally applicable to a green tea, and is by the Chinese 

 nppli ive kind called Loong-tsing, literally 



tgon, ' which is never brought, to 

 licate and slightly fired as to spoil by 

 the least damp.' -Davis.! The true imperial tea. also 

 called flos the.i', not that it i.< tin- flower-buds, as some 



suppose, but merely the perfection of tea, never reaches 

 Europe, as the damp of the voyage and a northern climate 

 would soon impair its qualities. That which is sold under 

 the name of Imperial is Chulan, or Soulang, flavoured with 

 the lan-hoa, which is the Chinese name for the Olea fra- 

 grans, Lin. 



Though it is stated that black tea may be cured as green 

 tea. and green tea as black, certain it is that the prepara- 

 tion of the respective kinds is carried on in different parts 

 of the empire, and different practices pursued with the 

 leaves from the first stage. In the green teas the leaves 

 only are taken, being nipped off above the foot-stalk or 

 petiole, while of the black teas the foot-stalk is always col- 

 lected. ' Thus black tea contains much of the woody fibre, 

 while the green is exclusively the fleshy part of the le:if 

 itself ; which is one good reason why it, should be dearer.' 

 (Davis, ii., p. 351.) Besides this, the" constant removal of 

 the young leaf-buds, by which the plant is prevented from 

 being clothed with full-grown leaves, which alone can 

 elaborate the sap, and contribute to the further growth of 

 the shrub, causes it to perish earlier, and compels a more 

 frequent renewal of the plantations. Indeed some cul- 

 tivators restrict the gathering of the leaves to two harvests, 

 instead of three, to save their plants. 



Those of the third gathering are large a'nd coarse, and 

 often so rigid that they cannot be rolled. This yields a 

 tea so inferior in quality that it is consumed only by the 

 poorest of the natives, or, when very bad, is, as are some 

 of the finer kinds when spoiled, used for dyeing. 



Such are the pains taken to ensure the excellence of 

 the finest sorts, that for two or three weeks before the har- 

 vest commences the collectors, who are trained to this 

 business from a very early age, are prohibited from eating 

 fish or other kinds of food reckoned unclean, lest by their 

 breath they should contaminate the leaves. They are also 

 made to take a bath two or three times a day, and not 

 allowed to gather the leaves with the naked fingers, but 

 always with gloves. The finest tea may, if the proper 

 time for gathering it be neglected, be changed into an 

 inferior tea in one night. It is necessary to roast the leaves 

 the same evening that they are collected, for if kept till the 

 following day they become black and lose much of their 

 \iiine. Previous to putting them into the iron pans or fur- 

 naces, which are heated by charcoal, some writers say that 

 they are dipped for about half a minute into boiling water ; 

 others do not mention this. About half a pound or three- 

 quarters of leaves ore put, into the pan at once, and dili- 

 gently stirred, to prevent them from being burnt. They are 

 then removed with a shovel and thrown on mats or into 

 baskets, and while yet hot the soft leaves are rolled be- 

 tween the palms of the hands, during which operation a 

 quantity of yellowish green juice exudes from them. This 

 n of masting and rolling is often repeated even to 

 the sixth or seventh time. This method is called the dry 

 way ; but by the wet way the leaves are first exposed to 

 the vapour of boiling water, after which they are rolled 

 and dried on the iron pans like the others. Leaves prepared 

 in the wet way have a bright green colour; those by the 

 dry, a dark green verging to brown. From the green tea, 

 when prepared in the dry way, less of the above-mentioned 

 juice exudes, a circumstance to which the greater power 

 of green tea is in some degree owing. The larger leaves 

 are generally selected to be prepared in the wet way. By 

 the process of roasting the leaves lose two-thirds of their 

 weight ; so that three pounds of fresh leaves dry into one 

 pound of tea fit for preservation. It is by the procc 

 roasting that the flavour is first developed, the leaves 

 when fresh being as insipid as the bean of coffee before 

 heat is applied. Siebold is of opinion that the agree- 

 able violet-like flavour of tea is inherent in the leaves 

 themselves, but most writers ascribe the different flavours 

 of the choicer kinds of tea to the admixture of the flowers. 

 leaves, or oils of a variety of different plants. The chief 

 of these are the Olea fragrans, CMormif/ti/x /i/ri:nxjiirn- 

 iis, Gardenia florida, Aglaia ndorata, Mogorium (Jnn- 

 iiii/iinii i ^ambac, Vitex spicata, Camellia Sasiiiiijiiit, and 

 C. oleifera, Illichtm anisalum, Magnolia Yulttii, and the 

 Rosa Indica odoratissima, as well as with the root of the 

 ///, ,;u,;-n/ia,a.nd Curcuma loiiga or turmeric, and oil of 

 Jii.ni Orellana. A variety of tea called Sonchi is often 

 found to contain a large quantity of ferruginous dust, but 

 whether by accident, as Mr. Davis thinks (Chiiirw, ii., p. 

 462), or a fraud to increase the weight, is doubtful. Its 



