Chap. IV , 
DYEING GREEN TEAS. 
69 
six plants in the row. The distance between each group 
or patch is generally about four feet. The first crop 
of leaves is taken from these plants in the third year. 
When under cultivation they rarely attain a greater 
height than three or four feet. 
When the winters are very severe the natives tie 
straw bands round the bushes to protect them from the 
frost, and to prevent it and the snow from splitting 
them. 
As many persons in Europe and in America have a 
peculiar taste for coloured green teas, I will now give 
a " full and particular account " of the colouring pro- 
cess as practised in the Hwuy-chow green-tea country 
upon those teas which are destined for the foreign 
market. Having noted down the process carefully at 
the time, I will extract verbatim from my note-book : — 
" The superintendent of the workmen managed the 
colouring part of the process himself. Having procured 
a portion of Prussian blue, he threw it into a porcelain 
bowl, not unlike a chemist's mortar, and crushed it into a 
very fine powder. At the same time a quantity of gyp- 
sum was produced and burned in the charcoal fires which 
were then roasting the teas. The object of this was to 
soften it in order that it might be readily pounded into 
a very fine powder, in the same manner as the Prussian 
blue had been. The gypsum, having been taken out 
of the fire after a certain time had elapsed, readily 
crumbled down and was reduced to powder in the 
mortar. These two substances, having been thus pre- 
pared, were then mixed together in the proportion of 
four parts of gypsum to three parts of Prussian blue, 
