Cuar. XJ.] ON TEAS SOLD AT CANTON. 221 
name. The finest kinds of Souchong are sometimes scented 
with the flowers of the Chloranthus inconspicuus, and Gardenia 
florida ; and they cannot be obtained, even among the Chinese, 
except at dear prices. A highly-crisped and curled leaf called 
Sonchi, has lately grown into disrepute and been much disused, 
in consequence of being often found to contain a ferruginous 
dust, which was probably not intended as a fraud, but arose 
from the nature of the ground, where the tea had been care- 
lessly and dirtily packed. 
4. “ Pekoe being composed mainly of the young spring-buds, 
the gathering of these must, of course, be injurious in some 
degree to the future produce of the shrub, and this description 
of tea is accordingly both dear and small in quantity. With a 
view to preserving the fineness of flavour, the application of 
heat is very limited in drying the leaves, and hence it is, that 
Pekoe is more liable to injury from keeping than any other sort 
of tea. There is a species of Pekoe made in the Green-tea 
country from the young buds, in like manner with the black 
kind ; but it is so little fired that the least damp spoils it; and 
for this reason, as well as on account of its scarcity and high 
price, the Hyson-pekoe as some call it, has never been brought 
to England. The mandarins send it in very small canisters 
to each other, or to their friends, as presents, under the name 
of Loong-tsing, which is probably the name of the district 
where the tea is made. ; 
“Green teas may generally be divided into five denominations, 
which are — 1. Twankey; 2 Hyson-skin; 3. Hyson; 4. Gun- 
powder; 5. Young Hyson. Twankay tea has always formed 
the bulk of the green teas imported into this country, being 
used by the retailers to mix with the finer kinds. The leaf is 
older, and not so much twisted and rolled as in the dearer de- 
scriptions: there is altogether less care and trouble bestowed 
on its preparation. It is, in fact, the Bohea of green teas; and 
the quantity of it brought to England has fully equalled three- 
fourths of the whole importation of green. ‘ Hyson-skin” 18 
so named from the original Chinese term, in which connection 
the skin means the refuse, or inferior portion of anything — 
allusion, perhaps, to the hide of an animal, or the rind of fruit. 
In preparing the fine tea called Hyson, all those leaves that are 
of a coarser, yellower, and less twisted or rolled appearance, 
