130 



TEA. 



if the pan was placed within another pan filled with boiling water, and the leaves 

 were stirred with an iron spatula, much trouble might be obviated. Still, the 

 rolling and drying of the leaves were successfully performed ; they became more 

 and more crisp, and preserved their twisted shape, except some few which seemed 

 too old and coriaceous to submit to be rolled up. The tea was then placed on a 

 sieve, with wide apertures of regular sizes, and formed of flat strips of bamboo. 

 The best rolled leaves, produced from the tips of the buds and the tenderest leaves, 

 passed through this sieve, and were subsequently fanned, in order to separate any 

 unrolled fragments which might have passed through them ; this produce was 

 called Imperial, or Uchim Tea. It was again laid in the pan till it acquired the 

 leaden grey tint, which proved its perfect dryness, and any defective leaf which 

 had escaped the winnowing and sifting was picked out by hand. The residue, 

 which was left from the first fanning, was submitted to all the operations of 

 winnowing, sifting, and scorching, and it then afibrded the Fine Hyson Tea of 

 commerce ; while the same operations performed on the residuum of it yielded the 

 Common Hyson ; and the refuse of the third quality again afforded the Coarse 

 Hyson. — Finally, the broken and unrolled foliage, which were rejected in the last 

 siftings, furnish what is called Family Tea, and the better kind of which is called 

 Chato, and the inferior Chuto. The latter sort is never sold, but kept for con- 

 sumption in the families of the growers. 



Such is the mode of preparation pursued at Eio Janeiro, though I must add 

 that the process employed at the Botanic Garden being most carefully performed 

 in order to serve as a model for private cultivators of tea, the produce is superior 

 to the generality, so that we dare not judge of all Brazilian tea by what is raised 

 at the garden of Eio. I was also assured, that at Saint Paul each grower had his 

 own peculiar method, influencing materially the quality of the tea, which de- 

 cided me to visit that province, where I hoped to gain valuable information re- 

 specting the culture and fabrication of tea, especially considered as an article of 

 commerce. 



In the interim, the month of December proving excessively hot and rainy, so 

 as to forbid any distant excursions, I turned my attention to the important ob- 

 ject of procuring teaplants in number and state fit for exportation ; and, observ- 

 ing that almost all the shrubs I saw were too large for this purpose, I applied to 

 ]Vi . de Brandao for his help and advice. This gentleman, in the most courteous 

 manner, offered me either seeds or slips from his own tea shrubs. The striking of 

 the latter was, he owned, a hazardous and uncertain affair, though it had the pro- 

 bable advantage of securing a finer kind of plant than could with certainty be 

 raised from seed. I, however, began by asking him for newly gathered seeds, in 

 order to set them in my little nursery garden at Santa Theresa, and he obligingly 

 gave me a thousand of the seeds, perfectly ripe and sound, which is easily known 

 by the purplish-brown color of their integument. M. Houlet immediately set 

 about preparing the soil in which to plant these seeds, and the earth being ex- 

 cessively argillaceous and hard, much digging, manuring, and dressing were 

 needful ; in a word, we neglected no precautions which could contribute to the 

 growth of our seeds. In the interim I allowed not a single dry day to elapse 

 without visiting the country house near Eio, in all of which I saw something 

 more or less interesting, either in the culture of tea, or other vegetable produc- 

 tions of commercial value. 



***** 



I detected, growing not unfrequently in the environs of Eio, the Ilex Para- 

 (juayensis of M. Auguste de St. Hilaire, perfectly identical with the tree which 

 the Jesuits planted in the missions of Paraguay, and whose foliage is an article 

 of great importance throughout Spanish America, and vended under the name of 

 Faraguay Tea. A living plant of this shrub was brought home by me, and placed 

 in the Eoyal Garden at Paris, as well as a species of Vanilla, and many other 

 rare and interesting plants. I also made a valuable collection of woods employed 

 for dyeing, buUding, and cabinet work, with samples of their flowers, fruits, and 

 leaves, to facilitate botanical determination. 



Early in January, 1839, M. Houlet began anew sowing tea, not only in the 

 open ground in our little garden, but also in pans, in order to facilitate the 

 lifting of the young plants, and putting them into the cases that I had 



