222 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



plants principally depends on the similarity of the 

 latitude. The tea is planted, plucked, and dried 

 precisely in the same manner as in China itself. 

 The Portuguese government has directed its parti- 

 cular attention to the cultivation of this plant, the 

 produce of which, to the value of twenty millions 

 of dollars, is annually imported from China to 

 England. The late minister, Conde de Linhares, 

 invited several hundred Chinese colonists, in order 

 by their means to make the proper manner of 

 growing and preparing tea better known. These 

 Chinese were said not to have been any of the in- 

 habitants of the coast, who leave their country 

 from poverty, and go to Java and the neighbour- 

 ing islands there to look for work, like the Gali- 

 cians in Spain and Portugal, but people from the 

 interior had been chosen, who were perfectly ac- 

 quainted with the management of the tea plant. 

 Most of these Chinese, however, do not now live 

 about the botanic garden, but in the vicinity of the 

 royal residence of Santa Cruz, except a few who 

 are employed here under the direction of Colonel 

 Abreu, to tend the tea plants, and gather and pre- 

 pare the leaves. The leaves are plucked three 

 times a year, and laid on gently heated kilns of 

 clay, on which they are dried and crisped. The 

 director of the establishment gave us samples of 

 the different kinds, which here also are chiefly dis- 

 tinguished according to the season of gathering. 

 The taste was strong, yet by no means so delicately 



