Feb, i i 1895.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
by washing, the seeds, if they are to be exported 
dry, are simply split into pieces and dried in the 
sun. The fresh nuts are sold in Freetown at from 
•11. to -il. per bushel. The total exports of kolas 
from Sierra Leone in 1S93 amounted to 9,354 cwt., 
valued at 40.10.)/. The natives, says the Consul, 
usually eat one nut in the early morning to ward 
orf craving for food while travelling, and one at 
night to induce sleep. — Cheiii&t ml Biiipgisi. 
«. 
INTEMPERANCE IN TEA. 
(To the Editor of the " Spectator.") 
Sir, — The seventeenth century seems, occasionally, 
to have excelled the nineteenth in the immoderate 
use of tea, though chiefly, perhaps, as a medicine. 
When tea first came into fashion in Prance, Madame 
de Sevigne wrote: — 
" La princesse en prend douze tasses tous les jours. 
Oela, dit-elle, la gue'rit de tous ses maux. Elle m'as- 
sura que M. le Landgrave en prenait quavante tasses 
tous les matins. — Mais, madame, ce n'est peut-O.tre que 
trente ? — Non, c'est quarante ; il ctait mo.nrant, cela 
le ressuscite a vue d'ceil." E. C. Price. 
-I am, Sir, &'c,', 
Malvern Wells, January 7th. 
[Translation : — - The Princess takes twelve cups 
every day. That, she says, cures her of all her 
troubles. She assured me that the Landgrave took 
forty cups every morning. — But, madam, perhaps it 
is only thirty ?— No, it is forty ; he was dying, but 
you could see it reviving him."] 
TEA AND SCANDAL. 
I have borrowed from the Royal Asiatic Society 
Library the third volume of the " Manual of the 
Administration of the Madras Presidency," 1893; 
and from it I think I may glean something useful, if 
not amu-sing. I naturally, of course, first turn to the 
article headed "Tea," audi find as follows : — 
Tea. — (Chaha Mali)'.; sai, Ar, ; chai, Pers.; cha, 
te, Malay; chagida, Can.; cha 'loi. ; teya- 
kuchettu, Tel. ; chaya, Mai. ; te, Singh. ; te'yilai, Tain.) 
Title from Malay cf. tay. Mahr. from Persian. Ar., 
etc. from Chinese. Tel. from (t« tea and ;iku, leaf and 
chettu, plant.) Mai from Chinese through Hindos- 
tany. Tarn, from (t; : , tea and ilai, leaf). Ar. also shai. 
Tel. also nallateystku (meaning black tealeaf). Tarn, 
also paccaitteyilai, meaning green and tea; karup- 
pultevilai, meaning black and tea. Title otherwise 
char, China tea, Tay. 
Botanic ally Camellia theifera. griff., ternstromiaceae. 
Alias Camellia yiridis : Thea assamica, cantoniensis, 
Chinensis, viridis ; Thea bohea stricta. Shrubby: 
leaves lanceolate, flat. Serrated, three times longer 
than broad; sepals five to six; petals six to nine; 
flowers axillary, solitary, erect, white; fruit nodding, 
dehiscent; capsule tricoccons. Evergreen with thin 
grey bark, alternate, very short-stalked leaves, saw- 
edged, and of a deep shining green ; flowers resem- 
ble tiiose of a bramble, one inch in diameter, pro- 
due.' I in great abundance if not pruned. The alka- 
loid of tea, called theiue, is ideutical with that of 
coffee or caffeine ; the theine is variable in quantity 
indifferent teas, south Indian samples containing more 
than those from China and .Tapani : the percentage 
ranges from one to more than six. Plant was intro- 
duced from China to Assam in 1830: -thence extended 
to debar. Sylhet, etc.: introduced in S. India in 
1837; the peculiarities of Ma Iras teas as contrasted 
with China teas, are their much greater strength 
and stronger aroma. Tn cultivating small plantations 
arc preferable to large : a rich loamy soil is best ; 
the object is to insure deep soil, free from rock and 
stones; a tolerably moist climate, such as may be 
found at elevations of from '2.500 to 5,000 ft. above the 
level of the sea, is most suitable, and in localities 
free from all influence of hit winds in summer ; the 
estimated number of seedlings for one acre is about 
tOOO'j l6r cultivation the ground is cleared as much 
as possible, marked out in lines, and holes dug at pro- 
per distances ; plants may be kept in the nursery 
till they are six months old ; after transplanting and 
when plants are eighteen months old, they are cut 
down to a short height, and from that time the young" 
shoots are plucked as they appear and manufactured 
into tea; the bushes require pruning and topping; 
ground must be kept clean ; the young leaves are used 
and the tree is not allowed to seed as a rule ; the 
flush is ready at intervals varying from seven to four- 
teen days ; produce is manufactured and ready for 
market in about six weeks. For Xeilgherry tea-plant- 
ing see Vol. I. 292. Tea-leaves- are divided into two 
classes, green and black, both the products of the same 
plant differently prepared for use ; the former con- 
tains a larger proportion both of theine and of tan- 
nin than the latter, their composition in other res- 
pects being nearly identical ; the green tea leaf is 
prepared when the plant is in its less mature state, 
while it contains a quantity of viscid, and to a cer- 
tain degree narcotic juice. Green teas which are or 
have been met within S. India are ; gunpowder, very 
strong being the leaf rolled quite round ; hyson a small 
leaf closely curled and bluish green; bloom tea, 
light green, and has loose leaf ; singlo, similar ; green 
tea is comparatively little used, owing to its high 
price, its powerful action on the nervous system when 
genuine, and its great liability to pernicious adulter- 
ation. There are three principal varieties of black 
tea : in the third or fourth year of the plant's age 
or later, the young shoot is plucked as soon as three 
leaves have appeared on it ; the uppermost leaf 
scarcely expanded when dried gives pekoe, the second 
about thirty-six hours old gives souchong, the third 
of forty-eight to sixty hours' growth gives congoo ; a 
fourth leaf is sometimes plucked and yields bohea, 
but the proportion of theiue diminishes from the 
topmost leaf downwards and is insignificant in this 
last variety, which is rarely brought to market ; all 
these varieties of leaf are plucked and dried together 
and separated subsequently by sieves of different- 
sized meshes, pekoe and souchong passing through 
the first sieve, leaving congoo behind, and being 
separated from each other by a further seiving ; 
thus the different kinds of black tea may be distinguished 
by the different sizes of the leaves expanded by 
infusion. Leaves slowly dried retain more green 
colour than those that are dried rapidly ; the green tea 
is carefully dried by exposure to the open air in the 
shade, the black by means of artificial heat in shallow 
pans over a charcoal fire. The above-named classi- 
ncatory terms are all Chinese. The adulterations 
of tea leaves are of two kinds, the substitution of 
leaves of other plants, and the introduction of ex- 
hausted tea leaves re-rolled and dried : if green tea 
be adulterated, put a piece of gall | manchicoy] into 
the liquor, which will turn it to a deep bluish "colour, 
this it will not do unless there be either vitriol or 
copperas [mayil teottam] in it as galls do not tincture 
the proper tea ; counterfeit black tea produces a deeper 
colour by infusion than the real tea, a little copperas 
put into it will turn it to a light blue, which other- 
wise ought to be of a deep blue inclining to black; 
it is with the small, white, pleasant-scented flowers 
of the osmantlms fragrans, lour., that the Chinese 
give a peculiar flavour to their best teas. The use9 
of tea need not be here mentioned, but it 
is to be observed that its narcotic effects on man 
increase towards the equator. The oil from seeds 
resembles that of olive Izeitoon], burns with a clear, 
bright light, and is free from unpleasant odour; not 
edible, but can be utilised in the manufacture of a 
superior kind of soap IsauboonJ. Wood grey, soft. 
There are at present date three varieties of plant, 
viz.: China, Assam, and a hybrid between those two ; 
the China is hardiest, but the hybrid most prolific 
of leaf and therefore most cultivated. For other 
leaves used as tea see Sharb (li Tea grass — cha'hullu, 
Can. Title from use of fresh le ives. Same as Roussa 
gras-i. — (2) €eylon tea, phaisailnn, Hind., same as 
Nerija. — [nd inn tea, chaihindi. Hind., same as Fragrant 
toolsy. — Shiranjij lea, chiranji, Tel., siine as Goduury. 
— Wild tea, banrit, Hind.; huluni. Can.; neyadassa, 
Singh. Title from leaf iiko tea-leaf. Hind, also 
(gonta) ; (deurii). Botauically Eurya japonica. than., 
tcrnstrcomiacotc. lu leaf and general appearance 
