200 



SCENTING TEAS. 



Chap. X. 



they were nearly all got rid of. Sometimes a few 

 stray ones are left in the tea, and may be detected 

 even after it arrives in England. A small portion 

 of tea adheres to the moist flowers when they are 

 sifted out, and this is generally given away to the 

 poor, who pick it out with the hand. 



The flowers, at this part of the process, had im- 

 pregnated the tea-leaves with a large portion of 

 their peculiar odours, but they had also left behind 

 them a certain portion of moisture, which it was 

 necessary to expel. This was done by placing the 

 tea once more over slow charcoal-fires in baskets 

 and sieves prepared for the purpose of drying. 

 The scent communicated by the flowers is very 

 slight for some time^ but, like the fragrance peculiar 

 to the tea-leaf itself, comes out after being packed 

 for a week or two. Sometimes this scenting pro- 

 cess is repeated when the odour is not considered 

 sufliciently strong ; and the head man in the fac- 

 tory informed me he sometimes scented twice with 

 orange-flowers and once with the ^'Mo-le" {Jas- 

 minum Sambae), 



The flowers of various plants are used in scent- 

 ing by the Chinese, some of which are considered 

 better than others, and some can be had at seasons 

 when others are not procurable. I considered 

 it of some importance to the elucidation of this 

 subject to find out not only the Chinese names of 

 these various plants, but also, by examining the 

 plants themselves, to be able to give each the 

 name by which it is known to scientific men in all 



