96 DIFFERENCE OF QUALITY OF 



a more fluid and diluted state, the tea of this 

 season should be found weak and flavourless, and 

 the prepared leaves, like dead leaves, pale and 

 yellow. Thus we find it stated by Mr. Jacobson of 

 Java, that the leaves of the successive gatherings 

 diminish in quantity and size as well as weight : 

 " that the leaves of the third gathering are less 

 abundant than those of the second ; but not in the 

 same degree as those of the second are less than 

 those of the first."* 



Again, as the excellence of all vegetable produc- 

 tions is so intimately connected with the state of 

 the weather, it will naturally suggest itself, that 

 the leaves of the tea shrub must also be greatly 

 influenced by it ; and consequently we find, that 

 the sun, so essentially requisite to the evolution 

 of the odorous principle of fruits and flowers, is 

 also deemed by the Chinese as indispensably ne- 

 cessary to the production of that fragrance and 

 quality which constitute the excellence of the finest 

 black teas. The Chinese say that the Yen or Padre 

 Souchong tea must be gathered not only in clear 

 and bright weather, but that those teas only are of 

 the first quality which are gathered during a conti- 

 nuation of fine weather, and even after noon, during 

 the greatest heat of the day. On the other hand, 

 a Chinese manuscript states, that " those which are 

 gathered in rainy weather are poor and tasteless, 



* Ilandboek v. d. Kult. en Fabrik. v. Tlicc, § 300. 



