S26 THE TmPlCAh AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 1, 1901. 
fruit hangs. The special Rrnb against which yon take 
these precautions ia the produce of a flj which is 
jenerally seen about the month of April. It lays its 
eggs one by one on the young fruit generally close to 
th« steni. There the egg sticks for some weeks, until 
juit about the period when the fruit conimeuces to 
swell and take its sugar ; then it hatches and the first 
•bject in life of the young grub is to bore its way into 
the fruit where it jroposes to lire. Prevent the fly 
from laying its eggs on your fiuit and you save it. It 
ii not very material if you leave the bags on or take 
them off when the fruit has increased in size. If you 
h-iv« provided by making the bags large enough, the 
frnit will generally ripen inside and it has one advan- 
tage : if your fruit falls when ripe, it w 11 fall into your 
bag aind not get bruised but on the whole if you have 
the time and can give the necessary attention you 
should take the bag off about June, for the flies are no 
longer to be dreaded then and the fruit will generally 
ba better for having ripened in the sun. — I am, etc , 
ED ROBISON. 
Yokohama, 9th Sept.— N China Berahl, Sept. IB. 
THE ROMANCE OF TEA, 
The cold reality of a grocer's price-list would 
suggest to few of those who read it any poetical 
or romantic associaticmp, and yet the pwrt of it 
whicii relates to tea is full of veiled poetry. 
M<>st of us leave it to our wives oi' housekeepers 
to select the brand they prefer, ladies being coin- 
nionly supposed to take more interest in the cup 
that clieers than the sterner and more alcoholic 
sex. But in these days of Temperance men are 
beginning to lose their former shame at being 
discovered "in their tea cups," and it is welltliat 
they should understand a little of what the names 
in the grocer's list are meant to tell them, hot 
that worthy tradesman intends to tell thein any 
thing by the names he uses, for he is quite ignorant 
of their real meaning. Neverthelesf, these names 
■were not fiiven by the Chinese without a reason, 
and they are the more worthy of notice because 
in spite of the talk of adulteration in connection 
with Chinese teas, the fact remains tliat tea is 
one of the very few things that hres the enthu- 
siasm of the Chinese mind, and leads the growers 
of that pretty camellia-like plant to take a pride 
in its quality apart from more cash considerations. 
Let us deal first with some of the nnc.mtli names 
to be found in our aforesaid grocer's list. Hyson 
will probably be found to figure among them. 
This is a corruption of two Chinese words, one of 
which signifies "before the rains;' while the 
other Hi ehun is the name of a young girl, 
which, being translated, signiliesFlourishingSpring. 
About two hundred years ago (his girl suggested 
to lier father an improved method of sorting his 
tea. He adopted it, much to his advantage, and 
his tea having become famous, he gratefully called 
it after his daughter. To this dny members of 
the same family are selling this same tea, and 
the "cliop," or brand, of this particular kind cf 
Hyson is Li Ya-hing, i e., Li's Extra Perf'.ime. 
But this is a name which we must not look for in 
the grocer's list until the public knowledge of 
tea and its vaiious qualities becotnes very much 
greater than it is. aD present. Oolong is a name 
we may look for with more confidence. This word 
means Black Dragon, owing to the fact that one 
Su was the first to bring to notice the peculiar 
excellence of a tea plant in which he had discovered 
a black snake coiled up. Congou is a name 
commonly applied in this country to tea suitable 
for breakfast. It simply njeans "well-worked-" 
Applied to Ceylon tea it used to mean tea 
made from the lower and .coarser leaves of he 
p'.mt as oiiposed to the Golden Tips, which 
sufficiently indicate the young buds gioviing 
higher on the main stem. This Golden Tip tea in 
mostly allotted to the Court and to high Chinese 
officials. The writer was once favouied with a 
Qup 
OF A VKKY SPECIAL BRA NO 
of the CeyJon vaiiety. Alter first being 
hiiuded round to be in.e|jectef! and admired 
in its dry form, it was itifu-i-d with the 
aid of a sand alass, and then poured off to bn 
drunk, it is needless to say, witli no allaying niill 
Comet Port could not have been produced with 
more ceremony, and the feeling of respectful awe 
with which the golden beverage was imbibed has 
survived the memory of its exquisite llavour. 
It is not perhaps generally knov\'n that the 
flower petals of roses, olea fragraus tubero.sp 
orange, jes miine, gardenia, and azalea are largely 
used to )ierlume the teas we drink thougli the 
name Orange Pekoe might, perhajis, have "i-uwees- 
ted this fact. The Chinese call this tea ""by a 
name meaning superior perfume, while the p.ire 
Pekoe is called Lou-tsze's eyebrows. It should be 
explained that Pekoe means "white hair," ana is 
applied to the young tea leaves owing to the fact 
that they are covered with a fine white down 
Most of this tea is sent to this country or Russia' 
where it constitutes the bulk of the famous cara- 
van tea sent overland. Lauteze was tlie founder 
of the Taoist religion, butas he whs born about a 
thousand years before the earliest mention of tea 
we may presume he never realised the virtue of 
his own eyebrows as a beverage. Other interesting 
Chine>^e names are "Carnation Hair " "Hp,1 
r>l " .'T 17- 1 ..^ . '~ IICU- 
Plnm-blossom," ''Lotous Kernf»I,'' " Sparrow's 
Tongue. Dragon's Pellet," "Dragon's " Whis- 
ker."," "Autumn Dew' and "Pearl Flower." Th« 
name Souchong simply refers to the mode of 
packing the tea. It is odd that the grocer should 
have fastened on this word for the purpo.'es of his 
list. Ceylon growers however, used to apply it to 
the leaves growing above the so called Congou 
leaves. Gunpow der tea, it needs scarcely be re- 
marked, is an English term which, though the 
Chinese are sometimes said to have invented the ex- 
plosive, they have never thought of applyi'ng to the 
tea themselves. So is "Imperial tea • " the 
Chinese call this varinusly "Sore Crabs' 'Eyes " 
" Sesamuin Seeds," or " Pearis " To remove the 
bad impression which it is feared the name Sore 
Crabs' Eyes may hav(3 pioduced, ic should be 
added that the va«t majority of Chinese names 
for various kinds of tea are very picturesque as 
for instance. Hearts of the Water Lily, Hearts of 
the Mne Curves, Ey-jbrows of Esteemed Old 
Age, Palm of the Gorls, Tea of the Princess Peak 
Tea of the Clouds and Mists of Mount Mana Tea 
of the Dragon's Well, Spikes of Silver, and In- 
terwoven Branches. There is 
A CHARMING CHINE.SE BALLAD 
the tea-pickers sins as thev gather 
I '<i*^,^crib. s the hardships undergone 
oy he girls who do this work, and niak.s mection 
both on the Sparrows Tongue and Dratrpn Pellet 
kinds incidentally. One of the stanzas runs as 
follows : — 
" My face is dirty ;^ out of trim my hair is, and away 
■ tell mo. where s the httle girl .so uely now as I ? 
which 
the leaves. 
Oh 
'T.8 ail because whole 
pickthe tea, 
weary hours I'm forced to 
