1881.] 



MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



123 



clay. This blueish, finely pulverized 

 matter is insoluble in water, appar- 

 ently unaffected by acids ; and I am 

 unable to distinguish it from clay 

 suspended in water and allowed to 

 settle on a slide. My inference is 

 that the cheap tea that shows this 

 fine, granular substance is sprinkled, 

 while damp or wet, with the dry, pow- 

 dered clay which adheres to it as it 

 dries, thus increasing its weight. It 

 is also possible that the steeped 

 leaves, which have served to furnish 

 the extract of tea used to flavor other 

 leaves, are thus treated with clay, 

 and dried so as to be sold again as 

 tea, at a low price. In the poorest 

 sample of tea that I could find for 

 sale (retailed at twenty-five cents a 

 pound), there were present a large 

 amount of stems of some bush, which 

 I could not assert were not tea stems, 

 also pieces of the stalk of some grass, 

 very like the common timothy grass, 

 somewhat colored, and undoubtedly 

 flavored by soaking in extract of tea ; 

 also a considerable number of pieces 

 of the stem of some pithy weed, and 

 a few fragments of some starchy 

 seed, either peas or beans, which, 

 however, may have been accidentally 

 present ; splinters of some coniferous 

 wood, also possibly accidental ; con- 

 siderable sand, much of the clay, or 

 some similar substance already al- 

 luded to, and a good many fragment? 

 of a blue coloring matter soluble in 

 water. The leaves representing tea 

 in this sample were mostly matted 

 into flat wads, instead of having the 

 loose, rolled appearance characteris- 

 tic of most teas, and had probably 

 either been steeped for extract, or 

 been wet and redried. Yet this sam- 

 ple of tea had a very good fragrance 

 and taste ; and when some of it was 

 steeped and placed on the table, it 

 was at first pronounced by those who 

 tasted it, " pretty good tea ; " but 

 when they were told its cost and 

 what it contained, it grew worse in 

 their estimation with each successive 

 test, and its defects multiplied until 

 it was pronounced "wretched," and 



the remainder was thrown away. As 

 I do not drink tea myself, I was un- 

 able to satisfactorily compare this 

 sample with good tea in the usual 

 manner ; but the experiment illus- 

 trates how little risk there is that a 

 skilful adulteration would be detected 

 by consumers generally, nearly all of 

 whom suppose they are using a first- 

 class article, or at least a pure one. 

 The structure of the leaves in this 

 sample of a cheap tea will be referred 

 to further on. 



Taking now the tea leaves which 

 were put to soak, and which have un- 

 folded and become soft, we proceed 

 to minutely examine the structure of 

 the leaves, so as to know whether any 

 leaves we may find in a sample pur- 

 porting to be tea, are tea-leaves or 

 not. The upper surface of the tea- 

 leaf is smooth, without hairs or stom- 

 ata, and, in its soft and swelled con- 

 dition, when examined in watei; and 

 glycerin with one-inch objective, 

 shows the surface to be composed of 

 angular cells, loosely arranged, some 

 oval or circular, with considerable 

 space between, with a tendency to 

 fall into rows corresponding with the 

 net-work of spiral vessels (Fig. i). 

 An occasional clear space (empty 

 cell) looks like a hole extending into 

 the leaf {a. Fig. i). The net-work 

 of spiral vessels is very close and 

 tortuous. The under surface bears 

 many long, slender, simple, pointed 

 hairs, without divisions (Fig. 7). 

 The cells are packed, and the stom- 

 ata exceedingly numerous (Fig. 2), 

 and there are no open spaces to be 

 seen. A section of the leaf (Fig. 8) 

 shows that the cells on the upper 

 side are attached by the end for two 

 layers in depth, then come the T- 

 shaped cells throughout the substance 

 of the leaf, with one layer of cells 

 lying flat on the under surface, and 

 gradually merging into the hetero- 

 geneous arrangement of the middle 

 part. Stripping off the cuticles from 

 each surface, and examining them in 

 the same medium, we find the actual 

 cuticle of the under surface (Fig. 9) 



