MK. gale’s non-explosive gunpoivder. 
29 
it. It can be used as a substitute foi; tea on all occasions, as it combines its tonic and 
digestive qualities, free from the sleepless effect. It possesses an aroma of great deli¬ 
cacy, capable of being rendered more or less pungent according to the quantity used, and 
it gives forth a most agreeable perfume ; after being drunk it leaves a lasting fragrance 
in the mouth, and in a closed room the odour of it can be recognised long after. This 
beverage has the further advantage over tea, which requires to be drunk at the time of 
making, that it can be reserved for a future occasion if requisite, and may either be taken 
cold or made hot again. Milk, or spirits in small quantities, especially rum, serve to de- 
velope its aroma, and, lending it additional delicacy or greater strength, render it a deli¬ 
cious drink. Lastly, this valuable plant is made use of to flavour custards and ices, to 
wfliich it communicates its delicate fragrance. 
“ To be taken as a warm beverage, the leaves and stalks should be placed in cold water, 
in about the proportion of one gramme to a tea-cup, more or less, as the consumer may 
desire it of a greater or lesser degree of strength. The water should be immediately 
made to boil for about the space of ten minutes in the tea-kettle or other closed vessel. 
It should then be emptied into the teapot or tea-cups and sweetened accordingly.” 
A sample of this new kind of tea has recently been received at the Kew Museum ; it 
was packed in a very neat canister-shaped box, similar to those now sold in Paris. These 
boxes are of two sizes, the smaller containing material sufficient for making fifty cups 
of Faham, and sold at 2/. 50 c., and the larger one hundred and five cups, and sold at 
of. Upon opening the box in question the perfume emitted was exceedingly powerful, 
and very similar to that of the Tonquin bean. The leaves, unlike those of tea, appear 
simply dried, not shrivelled by heat, but are as flat as we should find them in any her¬ 
barium. The absence of any artificial colouring matter, or roasting, accounts for the 
very light colour of the infusion. 
No doubt there are many persons who would prefer the fragrance of this article to the 
aroma of Chinese tea, but for my part I give preference to the latter—perhaps prejudice 
may have something to do with it. The perfume from the teapot is certainly very agree¬ 
able, and is an undonbted novelty ; and if Faham came into general use, this domestic 
article would serve the twofold purpose of a teapot and a “ perfume vaporizer.” Doubt¬ 
less if these leaves can be obtained in quantities sufficient for consumption as tea, the 
French perfumers might also import them to advantage, if for no other use. Pow¬ 
dered, they would make excellent sachets. 
In the Museum at Kew are some cigars made of the leaves of 4simply 
rolled in a thin tobacco leaf. They are probably very agreeable smoking, but I am un¬ 
able to say if this application is a common one in the island of Bourbon, or whether 
these specimens are rather a curiosity.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
MR. GALE’S NON-EXPLOSIVE GUNPOWDER. 
The final Government trials to test to the utmost the value of Mr. Gale’s discovery 
were made on the largest scale, on Wednesday afternoon and evening, in one of the 
Martello towers on the beach halfway between Hastings and Rye. Everything con¬ 
nected with these experiments was entirely managed by the members of the Ordnance 
Select Committee, and workmen from Woolwich Arsenal were employed to mix the 
strongest Government powder with the protecting composition, to barrel it, and to stack 
it in the Martello tower. Mr. Gale’s only share in the proceedings was that he furnished 
the protecting compound, that his directions as to its mixture were implicitly followed, 
and that when all was ready he was invited to be present at these official tests, which, 
like all such, were very properly of the most severe and exacting kind. In the result 
they proved most triumphantly that Mr. Gale is right when he asserts that by means of 
his mixture the strongest powder can easily be rendered not only non-explosive, but even 
almost incombustible, and this without in the slightest degree deteriorating from its 
destructive power when the powder is separated, as it can be at once, from his protecting 
compound. On Wednesday, certainly, all efforts to blow up five tons of powder when 
mixed according to Mr. Gale’s directions, not only proved utterly fruitless, but the 
powder actually twice went out, and it was after all found necessary to set fire to the 
woodwork of the Martello tower, in which it was stored, in order to consume it at all, 
