Edible Products. 



86 



[Feb. 1907. 



work bamboo tray with wide meshes, on which is placed about 2,\ lb. of tea leaves, 

 spread on thick Japanese paper. They are allowed to remain here for about one and a 

 half hours till pronounced to be perfectly dry, and are then often put into a machine 

 for polishing ; this is, however, sometimes omitted. 



Colouring. — The colouring matter is added to the tea either in the course of 

 polishing or else during the process of firing. No colouring matter is employed for 

 the highest grades of basket-fired tea. 



Sun-Dried Tea.— This is a technical name for uncoloured tea, or tea with 

 a very little colouring matter in it. This is not so much exported as pan-fired and 

 basket-fired tea. 



Loss of Weight by Tea in course of Firing.— Tea loses considerably in 

 weight during this re-firing principally owing to evaporation, but also to the re- 

 moval of stalks, dust, &e. 



Pan-fired tea loses about 17 per cent., sun-dried about 15 per cent, and basket- 

 fired about 12 per cent, the best kinds, however, being as low as 10 per cent. 



Packing. — When finished the tea is packed in lead-lined half chests, contain- 

 ing generally 88 lb. Practically* all is exported to Canada and the United States, 

 only an infinitesmal proportion finding its way to Europe. 



Statistical Tables.— The following tables must be taken as approximate 

 only, owing to the difficulty of ascertaining the exact amount of tea in the tea 

 producing districts. 



In the tables the yen has been taken at 2s. Ohd. and the kwan at 8.3 lb. 



Quantity. Value, 

 lb. £. 



Gyokuro Tea ... ... 612,125 ... ... 35,270 



Sencha ... ... ... 39,192,302 ... ... 985,384 



Black Tea ... ... 209,351 ... ... 4,945 



Bancha... ... ... 15,574,252 ... ... 95,201 



Total ... 55,588,030 ... ... 1,120,800 



[Consular Report No. 637, September, 1905.] 



THE GROUND-NUT OR PEA-NUT. 



(ARACHIS HYPOG^EA LINN.) 



Arachis hypogsea is a plant unknown in the wild state. There is no know- 

 ledge to be recorded of its early history. How it came into cultivation cannot now 

 be traced. That America gave the race birth is beyond doubt, and it is clear that 

 in the sixteenth century Africa and Asia received it. Since then it has spread, so 

 that the area of its extension is now over the whole of the tropics and into a large 

 part of the temperate regions suited to the vine. Wherever grown its richly oily 

 seeds serve as a food, and during the last 60 years it has obtained a wide use in 

 Europe as an oil seed. Many small controversies have arisen over Arachis, and 

 many misunderstandings of the plant. The origin of the plant, the sexes of its 

 flowers, the nodules of the root, have been among the causes. The calyx-tube has 

 been a fruitful source of mistake, and the origin of the name Arachis is 

 hopelessly obscure. 



Description.— The genus Arachis is a peculiar one of the large order 

 Leguminosae in which it belongs to the sub-order Papilionacese. All the known 

 wild species of Arachis inhabit Tropical South America, and doubtless the largest 

 member of the genus, A. hypogcea, was worked up by the cultivation of centuries 



