922 sIR JOHN FRANCIS DAVIS'S REMARKS ([Cuar. XI. 
are set apart and sold as the refuse or ‘skin-tea, at a much 
inferior price. The whole quantity, therefore, depends on, and 
bears a proportion to, the whole quantity of Hyson manu- 
factured, but seldom exceeds two or three thousand chests in 
all. 
« The word Hyson is corrupted from the Chinese name, which 
signifies ‘flourishing spring,’ this fine sort of tea being of 
course gathered in the early part of the season. Every sepa- 
rate leaf is twisted and rolled by hand, and it is on account of 
the extreme care and labour required in its preparation, that 
the best Hyson tea is so difficult to procure, and so expensive. 
By way of keeping up its quality, the East India Company used 
to give a premium for the two best lots annually presented to 
them for selection ; and the tea-merchants were stimulated to 
exertion, as much by the credit of the thing, as by the actual 
gain in price. Gunpowder, as it is called, is nothing but a 
more carefully picked Hyson, consisting of the best rolled and 
roundest leaves, which give it that granular appearance whence 
it derives its name. For a similar reason, the Chinese call it 
Choocha, ‘ pearl-tea.’ Young Hyson, until it was spoiled by 
the large demand of the Americans, was a genuine, delicate 
young leaf, called in the original language Vu-tsien, ‘ before 
the rains,’ because gathered in the early spring. As it could 
not be fairly produced in any large quantities, the call for it on 
he part of the Americans was answered by cutting up and 
sifting other green tea through sieves of a certain size ; and, as 
the Company’s inspectors detected the imposture, it formed no 
portion of their London importations. But the abuse became 
still worse of late (as we shall presently see), for the coarsest 
black tea-leaves have been cut up, and then coloured with a 
peepee resembling the hue of green teas. 
“ The remission of the tea duties in the United States ocea- 
sioned, in the years 1832 and 1833, a demand for green teas at 
Canton which could not be supplied by the arrivals from the 
provinces. The Americans, however, were obliged to sail with 
cargoes of green teas within the favourable season ; they were 
mined they should be supplied. Certain rumours being afloat 
concerning the manufacture of green tea from old black leaves, 
the writer of this became curious to ascertain the truth, and 
