156 



The World's Commercial Products 



AN INDIAN TEA NURSERY 



other quarters until a sale is 

 effected. The teas bought 

 up in a district are then con- 

 veyed to the most convenient 

 town, where they are again 

 graded and packed into chests 

 for the foreign markets. 



The purest of all teas, 

 which is least touched by the 

 human hand in its manu- 

 facture, is the Virgin Tea of 

 China. It is prepared exclu- 

 sively from the very youngest 

 leaves of the shrub and is used 

 principally at Chinese mar- 

 riages, and so delicate are the 

 leaves that even after pro- 

 longed, boiling but little tan- 

 nin is evident. The leaves 

 are tied together with silk 

 thread in tiny bundles, and 

 when the tea is to be brewed a bundle of the leaves is held in a large clear crystal cup of 

 very thin glass by means of a small ivory or- silver skewer, and the boiling water poured in. 

 The leaves slowly unfold and, changing colour from the dingy greyish-black condition, quickly 

 revert 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. • • 



The Chinese are experts in the adulteration of tea. They use for this purpose the leaves 

 of the rose, ash, and plum, rhododendron, buckthorn, and many other plants. The teas are 

 also -scented with the flowers of an olive (Olea fragrans), Chloranthus inconspicuus, and species 

 •of Gardenia and Jasminum. Even mineral adulterants are also employed to give weight 



ft was largely owing to the j ealousy of the Chinese Government in preventing the visits of 

 foreigners to tfye great tea-growing districts, that the mystery surrounding 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, the differences in the 

 finished product being due entirely to differences in the process of manufacture, 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 Thea Bohea and the " green " 

 teas from Thea viridis, both plants being well known in England. During 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 the 

 Ning-po country and in the islands of the Chusan Archipelago, proved to be, without exception, 



