TROPICAL HORTICULTURE. 17 



leaves, white flowers, and forming fruit. The trees, which are 

 placed far enough apart to give room for gathering the ripe ber- 

 ries, require little care beyond keeping the ground clear at their 

 base and removing any scale or other insects. When ripe the 

 berries are gathered and " pulped." The seeds are generally 

 two, with flat faces which come together. Sometimes only one 

 seed ripens, and becomes round. It is then called " pea-berry " 

 or " male-berry." These seeds are next separated from a parch- 

 ment-like membrane which clings to the interior cleft, and after 

 drying are ready for shipment. 



Tea. — The different varieties of the tea plant are probably 

 all referable to two species of Camellia. In hot climates like 

 Ceylon it is possible to get an excellent product at less risk of 

 injury, and cheaper, as to mere raising, than in China or Japan. 

 But it is subsequent treatment which largely controls the price. 

 The plants must be good, to start with, and must have good soil. 

 When ready for the first picking the laborers snip .off with 

 thumb and finger the tips of the branches. When the bush is 

 thus stripped it is ready to have the axillary buds* start out and 

 give new growths of fresh tips, and so on, a new picking being- 

 possible as often as the shoot is ready. The picked tips are 

 brought to the factory and dried, and prepared to constitute green 

 tea. Nowadays it is more common to let the leaves wilt a little, 

 and undergo a process of change which is improperly but very 

 generally called " fermentation," by which they become much 

 blackened. They are then rolled by ingenious machinery and 

 carefully dried. This is a very brief account of the usual process 

 now adopted in Ceylon and parts of India for the preparation of 

 certain forms of black tea. In Ceylon and India it is possible to 

 have a good many '• flushes " of fresh shoots and tender leaves 

 during the year, whereas in more northern regions the number of 

 pickings is much less. Obviously the most costly factor in the 

 production of tea is the labor in picking it. This renders it 

 practically impossible to cultivate tea profitably under existing 

 labor conditions in our own South. 



At the present time tea is seldom adulterated. The very cheap 

 teas in the market are chiefly those which have been injured by 

 keeping, or have suffered in some way during : manufacture or 

 transportation. Besides them, there are good cheap teas which 

 are simply from coarser leaves. 



