Chap. XV. 



ADVICE TO THE HEADER. 



253 



CHAPTER XV. 



Some advice to the reader — Botany of the black-tea country — Geo- 

 logical features — Soil — Sites of tea-farms — Temperature — Rainy 

 season — Cultivation and management of tea-plantations — Size of 

 farms — Mode of packing — Chop names — Route from the tea- 

 country to the coast — Method of transport — Distances — Time 

 occupied — Original cost of tea in the tea-country — Expenses of 

 carriage to the coast — Sums paid by the foreign merchant — Profits 

 of the Chinese — Prospect of good tea becoming cheaper — -Tiing-po's 

 directions for making tea — His opinion on its properties and uses. 



As this chapter is intended for the man of science 

 and the merchant, it may not contain much of interest 

 to the general reader, who, if he pleases, may pass 

 it over and go on to the next. Having been thus 

 fairly warned, he must not blame me if I bring into 

 it some hard botanical names which are necessary to 

 the elucidation of my subject. 



It is generally admitted that nothing can give a 

 botanist a better idea of the climate of a locality 

 than a list of the plants which are indigenous to it, 

 This knowledge, in the absence of thermometrical 

 observations, is oftentimes of great value. Fully 

 impressed with the importance of this subject, I took 

 care to jot down in my note-book the more import- 

 ant species of plants which I observed, either wild 

 or cultivated, in the great black-tea country about 

 Woo-e-shan, 



