TEA. 293 



in which case a pleasanter beverage does not 

 exist." 



Pierre Pomet tells us, in his Histoire G7- 

 nerale des Drogues, published in 1694, that 

 the best tea could not then be bought in 

 France under two hundred francs per pound, 

 which is nearly eight guineas English money. 

 The same author tell us, that tea, which 

 had formerly been in general use with the 

 French citizens and nobility, was then en- 

 tirely superseded by the use of coffee and 

 chocolate. He gives us the figure of the 

 leaf of the tea-plant, from a leaf which he 

 obtained from Holland for that purpose ; and 

 he notices, that Les Sieurs du Four ct de 

 Blegny, who had then written on the quali- 

 ties of tea, had endeavoured to procure plants 

 with a hope of cultivating it in France. Had 

 these naturalists been assisted by their go- 

 vernment, there is no doubt that long be- 

 fore this time France would have been able 

 to supply the whole of Europe with tea, as 

 Portugal does with the China orange.'" 



Tea continued at the high price of sixty 

 shillings per pound until about the year 

 1700. In 1715 green tea began to be used; 



# See Ponuirium Britannicum, p. 271. 



