124 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



with the palms of the hands, and when cool 

 returned to the pans : this is repeated till the 

 tea is perfectly dried. In this way, three 

 pounds of leaves produce one pound of tea. 

 This appears, from the most recent accounts, to 

 be the usual method of preparing green tea ; 

 black tea is said to be prepared from the same 

 kind of leaves, in the same way, except that 

 they are first exposed for some time in sieves 

 to hot steam. 



The quality of the tea depends upon the 

 stage of growth at which it is gathered. Early 

 leaves make the best tea ; those picked late 

 in the season a very coarse one. The first 

 gathering of tea leaves commences about the 

 latter end of February, when the leaves are 

 young and unexpanded. This is called im- 

 perial tea, and is highly esteemed. Pekoe, or 

 pak-ko, which means " white down" in Chinese, 

 consists of the first downy sprouts or leaf-buds, 

 of three year old plants. Of course, the gather- 

 ing must be injurious to some extent to the 

 future produce of the shrub ; hence, the tea is 

 both dear, and the production small in quantity. 

 A very costly tea of this kind, never brought 

 to Europe, and known as the " tea of the wells 

 of the dragon," is used only by persons of 

 the highest rank in China. The real imperial 

 tea, also, is not, as is usually supposed, the 

 flower-buds, but only a very superior quality 

 as just stated ; it is seldom brought to Europe, 

 that sold under this name being really Chusan 

 tea, flavoured with blossoms of Oka fragrans. 



