TEA TREE. 
155 
fine sort of tea is occasioned by the use of copper 
plates, is entirely without foundation. Father Le 
Compte, indeed, has mentioned the circumstance ; 
but we have no reason to place implicit credit on 
what he says, particularly as the observations of sub- 
sequent authors have invariably contradicted his as- 
sertion. Sir George Staunton, after giving a few 
particulars respecting the growth of the tea-plant 
in China, says, that the young leaves undergo no 
inconsiderable preparation before they are delivered 
to the purchaser. u Every leaf passes through 
the fingers of a female, who rolls it up almost to 
the form it had assumed before it became expanded 
in the progress of its growth. It is afterwards 
placed upon thin plates of earthenware or iron, 
made much thinner than can be executed by artists 
out of China. It is confidently said in the country, 
that no plates of copper are ever employed for that 
purpose. Indeed, scarcely any utensil in China is 
of that metal, the chief use of which is for coinage. 
The colour and astringency of green tea are thought 
to be derived from the early period at which the 
leaves are plucked, and which, like unripe fruit, are 
generally green and acrid.” 
Sir George informs us that the tea is packed in 
large chests, lined with very thin plates of lead and 
the dried leaves of some large vegetable. “ It is 
but too true, that the tea is pressed down into those 
chests by the naked feet of Chinese labourers, as 
grapes are pressed by the wooden shoes of Euro- 
pean peasants; in which last case the juices are 
