ORDER MONOGYNIA. 
217 
Some suppose, that in reality, all the teas are taken from the 
same botanical species, and that the different flavour and ap- 
pearance of them depend upon the nature of the soil, and culture, 
and the method of preparing the leaves. 
On account of the secret and jealous policy of the Chinese, 
the natural history of the Tea plant is less known than might be 
expected from its very general use. The Chinese begin in Feb- 
ruary to gather the tea leaves, when they are young and yet un- 
expanded. The second collection is made in April, and the third 
in June. The first gathering which consists only of the young 
and tender leaves, is the Imperial tea : the other two kinds are 
less odorous ; the last collected is the coarsest and cheapest kind. 
Tea was introduced into Europe by the Dutch East India Com- 
pany, in the year 1060, when it sold for sixty shillings a pound, 
and for many years its great price limited its use to the most 
wealthy. In considering the effects of tea upon the human sys- 
tem, medical writers differ in opinion, and a doubt seems to re- 
main whether the use of it is on the whole beneficial or in ju- 
rious to the health of mankind. If it is not injurious to health, 
the use of it no doubt promotes the happiness of society, as it 
is exhilarating, and adds to the enjoyment of social intercourse. 
The Poppy (Papaver) was one of the flowers early given you 
for analysis. Its numerous stamens standing upon the recepta- 
cle around the base of the germ, and its large stigma, with its 
two leaved caducous calyx must be well remembered. Single 
poppies have but four petals ; but the change of stamens to pe- 
tals is very common in this flower, and most of the cultivated 
poppies are double. 
From the papaver somniferum, is obtained the opium of com- 
merce. The juice which issues from incisions in the green cap- 
sules, is dried in the sun and usually made into cakes. Six hun- 
dred thousand pounds of this drug are said tobe annually exported 
from the banks of the Ganges. The narcotic property of opium 
renders it highly valuable as a medicine. Why it is, that cer- 
tain substances, acting upon the human system, have power to 
affect the mind, no physiologist has yet been able to explain. 
But in the power of fermented liquors to produce changes in the 
mind, or of opium to lull its faculties into temporary oblivion, 
there is nothing more wonderful, than that the presence of light 
should produce vision, or the vibrations of the air sound. All 
are equally beyond our knowledge ; we may trace a series of or- 
ganic changes, but the last link of the chain, that which connects 
body and soul, is concealed from our observation. Thus why it 
Poppy described — Opium as an article of commerce — Valuable as a medi- 
cine — Vast exports of it from the banks of the Ganges. 
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