enlightenment of Europeans, in regard to that plant 
which, of all others, possesses a greater share in 
the affections of a greater number of human beings 
on the face of the earth, than any other single 
plant, with which a kind Providence has blessed 
us. Every one will recognize Tea as the almost 
universal panacea for some or other of the wants 
of human nature. It seems probable that even the 
eastern side of Asia alone can supply a tea-drink- 
ing population of three hundred millions of souls ; 
independently of other parts of the globe. 
It has been asserted, by writer after writer, that 
the black and green Teas are the produce of distinct 
species of the Tea-tree, and to this circumstance 
their difference of quality has been attributed. Mr. 
Reeves, an Englishman, and tea-taster to the East 
India Company, at Canton, gave his authority to 
the opinion ; but it seems probable that his taste 
was a better assistant to commerce, than his eye 
to science, for Dr. Siebold, with other botanists, 
has determined that in Japan, the same plant pro- 
duces both the black and green Teas, and Fortune 
has corroborated the fact in China. For green Tea 
the leaves are gathered, and immediately submitted 
to the drying process, on large iron pans, and to 
rolling between the hands, to twist them as re- 
quired. For black Tea the leaves, after gathering, 
are exposed in sieves, over boiling water, and in- 
fused by the hot steam, by which they are deprived 
of some of their astringent principles, and then 
dried as for green Tea. An error, connected as it 
is with an article so perpetually before us, it is 
worth while to correct. 
