90 TEA SHRUBS. 



garded as the principal Chinese vegetable curiosi- 

 ties. As far as gardening, or lajdng out a gar- 

 den is concerned, these people possess any thing 

 but the idea of beauty or true taste, neither 

 being in the least degree attended to in the 

 arrangement of their gardens ; every thing bears 

 the semblance of being stiff, awkward, and per- 

 fectly unnatural. To distort nature a Chinese 

 seems to consider the attainment of perfection. 



At these gardens the different species and 

 varieties of the tea shrub, both in seeds and 

 young plants, can be procured. According to 

 Chinese botany there exist many varieties as 

 well as species of the tea shrub. The quality 

 of the tea does not only depend upon the 

 mode in which it is prepared, but also upon 

 the soil where it is cultivated. They make 

 a very minute distinction about the hills where 

 the tea is grown, in the same manner as we do 

 in regard to the vine. The Kwang Keun, fang 

 pao, a work on Chinese botany, in forty volumes, 

 treats largely upon the subject, and mentions 

 every hill where good tea grows. Fokien pro- 

 vince is the richest tea territory ; but it grows 

 more or less in all the provinces, except the 

 northern ones. There are many species men- 

 tioned, which had never come under the notice 

 of Europeans, and their flavour is highly ex- 



