274 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October r, 
dried. "We need wonder the less at this as it is the 
same with the coffee. Every one k .otvs that un- 
roasted coffee possesses nothing of the pleasant 
aroma and ethereal odour which are proper to it after 
being roasted. The tea leaves are dried upon great 
iron plates, which are excessively heated, and in large 
flat iron pans by being constantly stirred with a gentle 
heat, and are then gradually dried by keepirjg up 
the heat. After this the hot leaves are turned out upon 
mats and rubbed with the palms of the hands; after 
having cooled they are again put in the pans and again 
roasted until the tea is perfectly dried, which is done 
by repeating this operation from four to six times. 
In drying the leaves lose three-fifths of their whole 
weight, mj that 3 lb. of fresh leaves produce only 1 lb. 
of dry tea. The differences in the colour, shape, and 
pubescence of the dried tea leaves at first induced 
botanists to think that the green and black teas were 
prepared from different species ; this, however, is not 
the case, but both kinds of tea can be made from the 
leaves of the same plant, as Abel learned during the 
journey of Lord Amherst. But when once prepared, 
the tea, as Mr. Reeves also mentions, cannot well be 
changed ; at least, black tea cannot be made into green 
tea, though the green may be changed, imperfectly 
at least, into black. 
It is a singular circumstance that the dispute amongst 
botanists whether tea is made from one species of the 
geaus Thea, or from two different species of this genus, 
has never yet been terminated. In Japan, where black 
as well as green tea is made, the tea shrubs according 
to the observations of Kiempfer, Thuuberg,and Siebold, 
belong to the same speeies, of which F. Nees von 
Esenbeck also has convinced himself from the speci- 
mens brought home by Siebold ; consequently the 
opinion so sharply expressed by Mr. Reeves, formerly 
tea-taster at Canton to the English East Indian 
Company, that the black and green teas are obtained 
from two perfectly different plants, is shown to be 
incorrect. Observation. — I do not think that more im- 
portance can be attached to the opinion of Mr. Reeves, 
even tbu ugh he has lived so long at Canton and Macao, 
than to the botanists by profession, who must know 
better what are to be considered as sp p cies and what 
as varieties. Besides, Mr. Reeves has never been in 
the provinces of China, where the culture of tea is 
universally carried on; nay, he does not even seem 
to have once visited the tea plantations in the neigh- 
bourhood of Canton. Mr. Reeves wonders how any 
one, who has been in China, who has only seen the 
different infusions of green and black tea, can con- 
sider both kinds of tea the leaves of one aud the 
same plant, and this expression which we must con- 
sider very extravagant, seems to find great approval. 
But had Mr. Reeves known how the different kinds 
of tea are prepared, he would no louger have won- 
dered. He refers us to the figures of the two sorts 
of tea which are given in Loddige's Bot. Cab. Tab. 
226 and 227, and remarks that the two species, which 
furnish the black and green teas, are there very well 
characterized. But that this is not so very extraordin- 
arily clear as Mr. Reeves thinks, will perhaps be con- 
firmed by the unprejudiced comparison of most 
botanists. Even in our agricultural p'ants of the kind, 
which have but small areas, j n comparison with the 
tea-plant, greater differences between the varieties 
than we find here may be pointed out. It is true 
that Hooker also has admitted the existence of two 
species of tea, but his characters are founded on 
plants which had been grown in England. 
If we take a number of leaves of all the various sorts 
of tea, which come to us in trade, soften them in hot 
water and lay them out tide by side, we shall soon be 
convince 1 that there are no characters which distinguish 
the different kinds of black tea from the green teas : 
provided a great number of leaves be observed. Accum, 
who is at present at Berlin, has lately executed and 
laid before the society for the advancement of Industry 
in l'russia, a work well worthy of attention, by which 
the transition of the leaves of all the different sorts of 
tea is shown. The correctness of Mr. Keeves' opinion 
on this subject may, therefore, at least be doubted; 
I think that it may even be refused. 
The green tea is prepared in the manner I have 
already stated; the black on the contrary is made in 
what is called the moist way. The fresh leaves arc 
laid on large sieves, and these are placed over boiling 
water, so that the leaves are permeated and strongly 
infused by the hot steam. After this the leaves are 
dried on irou frames in the manner previously described. 
By this infusion with hot steam the fresh tea is deprived 
of its astringent priucipals, viz., the gallic acid aud 
tannin : the leaves also in consequence contain fewer 
of the delightful aromatic particles which are present 
in green tea in such quantities. Thus, according to the 
known analysis of chemists, black tea contains less 
gallic acid aud tannin than green tea ; nay, the latter 
alone contains theine, an alkaloid, which the black tea 
is probably deprived of solely by the infusion with the 
hot steam. 
Although it is now decided that all kinds of tea are 
prepared from the same species of Thea, it must not 
be thought that all the sorts can be made iu one aud 
the same district and from one bush. In one 
place the black tea chiefly is grown, in another the 
green tea; here the tea is but little curled up, there 
very much, so that it becomes quite globular : this is, 
however, by no means a mark of very fine tea. I do 
not think that one cau be surprised at this, for the 
same holds good with ottier agricultural plants with us, 
of which there are likewise hundereds of varieties. 
I here call to mind the making of our wine: the vine 
is almost everywhere the same 6pecies ; and yet how 
differently so the wines taste and smell. The tea plan- 
tations, the leaves of which are of a particular flavour, 
are first as limited as the place in which this or that 
vine of a peculiar flavour occurs; and it is not the 
case, that the pleasant o lour of particular kinds of tea 
is giveu by other fragrant substances. However, 
I here remark, that I have seeu large quantities of the 
flower buds of Olea fragrans, which are a real article 
of trade in China., aud are used by connoisseurs to 
improve the flavour of green tea; but every one mixes 
this substance according to his own taste. Iuferior 
sorts of tea, which generally do not come to us in 
commerce, but are kept for home consumption, are 
prepared by taking entire branches and shoots from 
common plants and drying the leaves p.irtly with the 
stalks, partly only stripped off by the hand. The 
brick-tea is made of this sort of tea. It comes into 
trade in hard cakes, very like thin bricks, but is 
chiefly consume I in Northern China, au-lin the interior 
of Asia, for example by the nomades in the desert of 
Cobi, it consists of bad and dirty leaves, mixed with 
stalks which are glued togeth> r by some clammy sub- 
stance, pressed in the form of cakes and dried in ovens. 
In using this brick tea some pieces are broken off, and 
after having been reduced to powder, it is boiled with 
water or with milk, meal and fat. The Chinese soldiers 
on the northern frontiers receive this brick .tea as pay, 
and what they do not need themselves, is sold at 
Kiachta. Indeed this tea is bartered in all parts of 
Mongolia and in Dauria. Large caravans of camels 
laden with this tea journey through the desert of Gobi. 
At an earlier period it was quite usual both in China 
and Japan to make tea from the powdered leaves. 
The oldest work yet known, in which tea is men- 
tioned by a European, is the Historia Indica of Maffei, 
which appeared at Leydeu in 1580: yet tea was first 
brought to Europe by Dutch merchants in 1610. As 
early as the year 1660 a tax was laid on the sale of tea 
by an Act of Parliament. In the year 1638 ambassadors 
from Moscow brought tea as a present to the Czar. 
Now that we have become acquanited with the 
cultivation, the preparation, and the distribution of tea, 
we shall proceed to the consideration of the immense 
quantities which are annually produced from this use- 
ful plant, aud consumed. We know that at present 
so large a quantity is consumed in England, that 
more than H lb. must be reckoned for each inhabitant; 
but the consumption of tea in China must certainly be 
much greater, for there every one who can drinks tea 
the whole day. However, if we reckon only a pouud 
and a half for each person, as the population of the 
Chinese Empire is at least 200 millions of souls, we 
I obtain the enormous amount of 300 millions of lb. If 
