September 2, 1889.] THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 181 
and particularly along the continent of China, it must 
be much more considerable where the air is in some 
parts very cold, in others moderate, or warm almost 
to an extreme. I am persuaded that the method of 
preparation must also have no little influence. I 
have dried the leaves of some Europeau plants in 
the manner described, which so much resembled the 
foreign tea, that the infusion made from them has 
been seen and drunk without suspicion. In these 
preparations which I made, some of the leaves re- 
tained a perfect cure, and a fine verdure like the 
best green tea : and others cured at the same time 
were more like the bohea. [A certain moderate degree 
of heat preserved the verdure and flavour better than 
a hasty exsiccation. In the first case it is necessary 
to repeat the roasting of tener.] I would not, however, 
lay too much stress upon the result of a few trials, 
nor endeavour to preclude further enquiries about a 
subject which at some future period may prove of 
more immediate concern to this nation. We might 
still try to discover whether other arts than are yet 
known here are not used with tea before its export- 
ation from China, to produce the difference of colour 
and flavour peculiar to different sorts. [Infusions of 
fine bohea teas do not differ a great deal in colour 
from those of green. To spirit they equally impart 
a fine deep green colour. I am informed by intelli- 
gent persons who have resided some time at Canton 
that the tea about that city affords very little smell 
whilst growing. The same is observed of the tea 
rjlants in England, and also of the dried specimens from 
China. We are not hence to conclude that art alone 
conveys to teas when cured the smell peculiar to 
each kind : for our vegetables, grasses for instance, 
have little or no 6tnell till dried, and made into hay.] 
An intelligent friend of mine informs me, that in a 
set of Chinese drawings in his possession, represent- 
ing the whole process of manufacturing tea, there 
are in one sheet the figures of ss- e al ; vsons ap- 
parently separating the different kinds of tea, and 
drying it in the sun, with several baskets standing 
near them filled with a very white substance and 
inconsiderable quantity. To what use this may be 
applied is uncertain, as well as what the substance 
is : yet there is no doubt, he thinks, that it is used 
in the manufacturing of tea, as the Chinese seldom 
bring anything into their pieces but such as relate 
in some respect to the business before them. We are 
better acquainted with a vegetable substance which 
has been employed by the Asiatics in giving a 
flavour to tea. This is the Olea Eragrans, whose 
flowers are frequently to be met with in teas exported 
from China. 
As green tea is by some suspected to have been cured 
on copper, they have attributed the verdure to be de- 
rived from that metal ; but if there were any foundation 
for this supposition, the volatile alkali mixed with 
an infusion of such tea would detect the least 
portion of copper by turning the infusion blue. [The 
hundredth part of a grain of copper dissolved in a 
point of liquor strikes a sensible blue with volatile 
alkalies. The finest imperial and bloom teas showed 
no sign of the presence of this metal by experiment.] 
Others have, with less propriety, attributed the verdure 
to green oopperas, but this ingredient, which is only 
salt of iron, would immediately turn the leaves black, 
and the infusion made from the tea would be of a 
deep purple colour. It is not more probable that 
some green dye prepared from vegetable substances 
is used tor the colouring. [" It is confidently said 
in the country that no plates of copper are ever 
employed for that purpose. Indeed scarcely any 
u.ensil used in China is of that metal, the chief 
application of which is for coir. The earthen or 
iron plates are placed over a charcoal fire, which 
draws all remaining moisture from the leaves, rendering 
tli' m dry and crisp." Sir G. Staunton's Embassy, Vol 
II. p. 465.] 
Section X. — Succedanea. 
Curiosity aud interest would mutually induce the 
Europeans to make the most diligent enquiries in 
order to discover the real tea shrub, or a substitute 
in some other vegetable most resembling it. Simon 
Paulli, a celebrated pbysiciau and botanist at Copen- 
hagen, was the first who pretended to have discovered 
the real tea plant in Europe. By opening- some 
tea leaves, he found them so much like those of 
the Dutch myrtle, * that he obstinately maintained 
they were productions of the same species of tea, 
though he was afterwards refuted by several botanists 
in Europe, and by the specimens sent to him, and to 
Dr. Mentzel of Berlin from the East Indies, by Dr. 
Cleyer. 
Father Labat next thought he had discovered the 
real tea plant in Martinico, agreeing he says in all 
respects with the China sort. He pretends also 
to have procured tea seeds from the East Indies, 
and to have raised the plant in America, but from his 
own account, this supposed tea appears to be only a 
species of Lysimachia, or what is called West Indian 
tea. 
Many other pretended discoveries of the Oriental 
tea tree have been related ; all of which have proved 
erroneous, when properly enquired into. The genus 
of plant, called by Kasmpfer Tsubakki,f has the 
nearest resemblance to it. The leaves of several 
European herbs have been used at different times 
as substitutes for tea, either from some similarity in 
the shape of the leaves, or in the taste and flavour; 
among these, two or three species of Veronica are 
particularly recommended, besides the leaves of sage, 
myrtle, betony,| sloe,§ agrimony, wild rose, and 
many others. Whether any of these are really more 
salutary or not, is undetermined ; and we now find 
that from the palace to the cottage every other sub- 
stitute has yielded to the genuine Asiatic tea. 
Coconut Planting. — I cannot conceive why more 
planters in the island don't turn their attention to 
coconuts. Many doubtless are quite unable, but 
surely there are some who see the good to be 
received from having two atrings to one's bow and 
are quite able to go in for both tea and coconuts 
for somj time ? — Cor. 
* Myrtica Gale, Gohle, Sweet Willow, or Dutch 
Myrtle. A plant of peculiar fragrance found in the 
north of England, Brabant, and other northern coun- 
tries. Simon de Molingriis was the first who op- 
posed this opinion of Simon Paulli, by shewing the 
difference betwixt this species of Myrtle and the 
oriental tea. 
■f Two specimens of this plant are now in the physic 
garden at Upsal. About the year 1755, they were 
brought over from China by M. Lagerstrom, a Director 
of the Swedish East India Company, under the 
supposition of being tea plants, till they appeared 
in blossom, when they proved to be this species of 
Tsubakki, called by Linnasus, Camellia. This cele- 
brated naturalist says: — "That the leaves of his camellia 
are so like the true tea, that they would deceive 
the most skilful botanist, the only difference is that 
they are a little broader." A camellia was brought 
in 1771 from China in good health; the leaves of 
this shrub end in a double obtuse point (obtusely 
emarginated) like those of the tea tree, which mikes 
them still more liable to be mistaken for those of 
the latter. K^empfer observes that the leaves of a 
species of Tsubakki are preserved and mixed with 
tea to give it a fine flavour. It is now a common 
plant in the greenhouses about London. 
I Botanical writers celebrate this herb for its many 
vi> Iks ; hence arose the Italian proverb " Vende lato- 
nica, et compra la Betonica (sell your tonics, and 
buy betony)." 
(5 In the year 1776 au Act was passed for the 
more effectunl prevention of the manufacturing of 
ash, elder, sloe, and other leaves, in imitation of 
tea : and to prevent frauds in the revenue of Excise 
in respect to tea, 17 George III. chap 29, being 
an amendment of the Act 4 George II., intitutled " An 
Act to prevent fraud in the Revenue of Excise with 
respect to Starch, Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate. 
