380 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



an unerring test, whether the leaves of green tea 

 contain any impregnation of copper, but in no case 

 has any trace of this metal been detected. 



The succulent tea-leaves are sometimes twisted 

 into thin rolls or cords, about an inch and a half or 

 two inches long, and several of these are tied toge- 

 ther by their ends, with coloured silk threads. This 

 is done with both green and black tea. 



The Chinese do not use their tea until it is about a 

 year old, considering that it is too actively narcotic 

 when new. Tea is yet older when it is brought into 

 consumption in England, as, in addition to the length 

 of time occupied in its collection, and transport to this 

 country, the East-India Company are obliged by 

 their charter to have always a supply sufficient for 

 one year's consumption in their London warehouses ; 

 and this regulation, which enhances the price to the 

 jonsumer, is said to have been made by way of 

 guarding, in some measure, against the inconvenience 

 that would attend any interruption to a trade entirely 

 dependent upon the caprice of an arbitrary govern- 

 ment. 



The people of China partake of tea at all their 

 meals, and frequently at other times of the day. 

 They drink the infusion prepared in the same man- 

 ner as we employ, but they do not mix with it either 

 sugar or milk. The working classes in that country 

 are obliged to content themselves with a very weak 

 infusion. Mr Anderson, in his narrative of Lord 

 Macartney's embassy, relates that the natives in at- 

 tendance never failed to beg the tea-leaves remaining 

 after the Europeans had breakfasted, and with these, 

 after submitting them again to boiling water, they 

 made a beverage which they acknowledged was better 

 than they could ordinarily obtain. 



The tea-plant is found in our conservatories, and 

 in such situations has occasionally put forth blossoms 



