REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 217 
not then acquainted with Loureiro’s writings, nor that that missionary 
had already named it Enkionthus quinqueflora. 
We were told that many large trees of it grew at some distance from 
the city, whence the country people brought bundles of the flowering 
spray, to sell in the streets to every one who was devout enough to be 
at the expense to decorate the domestic image of his deity, Joss, at 
that festival. 
The tine-flowering plant called Hong-qua is very common in the 
gardens. This is the Volkameria Indica , introduced and first flowered 
by Mr. Slater, in 1791. 
The Yong-too is a useful culinary fruit in China, which we found 
at almost every place we touched at in India, and already mentioned 
as the Averrhoa Carambola. This plant was introduced by Mr. Slater, 
in 1792, and soon afterwards by the late Duke of Portland. 
We made all possible inquiry concerning the great staple commodity 
of Chinese commerce, the celebrated tea-plant. Nothing satisfactory 
could be learned from the Chinese nurserymen; but Messrs. Duncan 
and Arthur told us that neither of the sorts called Green and Bohea are 
the kinds cultivated in the tea-country. We saw two boxes of living 
plants consigned to Calcutta, at the instance of the East India Com¬ 
pany, which were brought direct by Sir George Staunton from the 
tea-country, and said to be the true cultivated sort. We could see 
nothing in which they differed from the common variety called Bohea, 
except that the leaves were smaller and rounder, which we attributed 
to their recent removal. Much difference of opinion exists among 
travellers vdio have visited China, as to whether or not the various 
descriptions of marketable tea be gathered from the same variety or 
not. We were told that all the different kinds and qualities in the 
shops may be manufactured from the same bush—the different times 
of gathering and different processes of curing making the difference in 
quality, colour, &c. This we heard repeatedly asserted by intelligent 
Chinamen and others in the Honourable East India Company’s service ; 
but a most respectable writer in the Gardener’s Magazine, and who had 
been in China himself, denies the possibility of green and black tea 
being produced by, or manufactured from, the same species. Unluckily 
for those who are desirous of ascertaining the fact, the writer alluded 
to has left the question where he found it, neither informing how the 
leaves of one sort become black in the process of firing, and those of 
another remain pale green. 
It has often been proposed as a question, whether tea could be culti¬ 
vated and manufactured in other countries as well as in China ? There 
VOL. v.—NO. LX. 
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