222 
TEA PLANT. 
establish them. It may, however, be remarked, that the plants which 
had been brought from the black and green tea districts, differed in 
the form, colour, and texture of their leaves ; those of the green tea 
plant being longer, thinner, and of a lighter colour than those of the 
black, although growing in the same soil : this difference of character 
I also observed in a large tea plantation near Macao. 
I could gain no information in China inducing me to believe that 
the process there used in manufacturing the leaf differs materially 
from that employed in Rio Janeiro, and which appears to be nearly 
the same as that of Japan, described by Kaemfer. From persons 
perfectly conversant with the Chinese method, I learnt that either 
of the two plants will afford the black or green tea of the shops ; 
but that the broad thin-leaved plant is preferred for making the 
green tea. As the colour and quality of the tea does not then 
depend upon the difference of species, it must arise from some 
peculiarity in the mode of manufacturing them. Drying the leaves 
of the green tea in vessels of copper has been supposed, but appa- 
rently without foundation, to account for the difference in colour. 
Without going into the supposition that any thing extraneous 
or deleterious is used, both difference of colour and quality may 
perhaps be explained, by considering one of the known circum- 
stances attending its preparation ; namely, the due management of 
the heat used in drying the plant. There can be little doubt, that 
a leaf dried at a low heat will retain more of its original colour and 
more of its peculiar qualities than one that has suffered a high 
temperature. Supposing, therefore, the leaves of the same species 
or variety of the tea plant to have undergone such different degrees 
of heat in their preparation, their peculiar properties would be 
expected to occur of greatest strength in those of the greenest 
colour ; or in those to which both Chinese and Europeans attribute 
the most powerful properties. I may here add, that by far the 
strongest tea which I tasted in China, called “ Yu-tien,” and used on 
occasions of ceremony, scarcely coloured the water. On examining 
