28 TEA 



condition, quickly reverting to nearly the same refreshing 

 greenness which they possessed when they were plucked. 

 The infusion, as seen through the glass, is of a pale amber 

 colour, resembling that of the finest qualities of cognac ; 

 it is drunk directly from the leaves, the aroma and odour 

 being obtained to perfection. 



It was largely owing to the jealousy of the Chinese 

 Government, in preventing the visits of foreigners to 

 the great tea-growing districts, that the mystery sur- 

 rounding the origin of " black " and " green " teas was 

 not finally cleared up until nearly the middle of last 

 century. Up to that time we find English writers 

 contradicting one another, some asserting that the black 

 and green teas were produced from the same variety 

 of the tea plant, and differences in the finished product 

 being due entirely to differences in the process of manu- 

 facture, and others equally convinced that the two 

 kinds of tea were produced from distinct varieties of the 

 tea plant, the " black " teas being prepared from the 

 leaves of the Thea Bohea and the " green " teas from 

 Thea viridis, both plants being well known in England. 

 I )uring the early part of the nineteenth century, however, 

 the great botanist, Robert Fortune, was travelling in 

 China on behalf of the Horticultural Society, and it 

 was due to the efforts of this observer that the mystery 

 was at last explained. The tea-growing districts visited 

 by Fortune were those of Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang. 

 Up to the time of his investigations upon the matter, 

 Fortune had held to the view of the dual origin of the 

 two varieties of tea, and was gratified to find that, 

 while in Canton black tea was obtained from a plant 

 which he identified as the true Thea Bohea, in the 

 green-tea districts of the province of Chekiang he failed 

 to meet with a single plant of this species, and further, 

 all the green-tea plants he was able to examine in Ning-po 



