58 NATURE OF THE SOIL. 



Then if this be true, which Mr. Wretgen believes, 

 and in which Lindley* coincides, that it is the 

 temperature and moisture of a soil, much more 

 than its mineralogical quality, which determines its 

 influence upon vegetation, an important fact is here 

 established. 



It has been shown, that after a long and uninter- 

 rupted period of rest during the winter, copious 

 moisture and rain happen in conjunction with a 

 gradually increasing evolution of heat, at the com- 

 mencement of spring, when the tea shrub begins 

 to shoot forth its leaves ; circumstances which all 

 allow are favourable to the perfection of vegetation 

 and obviously so to the rapid growth of the leaf to 

 its size and succulency. 



It is further known by the size and succulency 

 of the Pouchong, Souchong, and Gobee Hyson teas, 

 together with their acknowledged and undoubted 

 superiority, that these conditions can be combined 

 with the highest degree of flavour and quality. 



Similar conditions are also necessary to the pro- 

 duction of quantity ; and quantity is no less impor- 

 tant than flavour to insure a lucrative cultivation 

 of tea. Indeed Europeans are unwilling to pay 

 the price which the Chinese obtain in their own 

 country for their high-flavoured teas ; nor is the 



plants of a miserable appearance, perhaps owing to their situation 

 too near the sea, or from the nature of the soil, for in that part of 

 the garden which is near streams of running water vigorous plants 

 may be observed." — La Revue Agricole, Fevrier, 1840, p. 268. 

 * Theory of Horticulture, p. 112. 



