174 
VARIETIES. 
and may be employed without the unpleasant effects that sometimes result 
from the employment of aloes alone. 
Take Socotrine Aloes, two ounces and a half, troy ; 
Bicarbonate of Soda, six ounces; 
Compound Spirit of Lavender, two fluid ounces ; 
"Water, four pints. 
Macerate the mixture for two weeks with occasional agitation, and filter. 
The dose is from a fluid drachm to a fluid ounce half an hour after meals. 
Sumbul Boot.— This root has usually been brought to England, via Russia, 
or from Russia. Some time since a box of the root arrived from India ; 
and recently some tins of it have been received here from Bombay, per 
Overland Mail. The owner states that it cost him a great deal of money 
on account of the enormous distance from the interior which it had to be 
brought. 
The Indian Sumbul differs somewhat from the Russian sort. The root 
has a closer texture, is firmer, denser, and has a more reddish tint. Some 
of the pieces have a slight resemblance to inferior rhubarb. The Russian 
Sumbul is more spongy, paler colored, with a yellowish green tint. 
Both sorts have the same musky smell ; but the Russian sort is perhaps 
more powerfully odorous. — Pharm. Journ. 
Preparation of Tea. By Berthold See'MANn. — In the Manual of Scientific 
Inquiry you ask whether, in the northern provinces of China, Indigo or any 
other vegetable dye is used in coloring green tea ? Whether different pro- 
cesses of dying are pursued in the north from those of the south I cannot 
say, but it is certain that around Canton, whence great quantities are 
annually exported, the green tea is died with Prussian blue, turmeric, and 
gypsum, all reduced into fine powder. The process is well described by 
Sir John F. Davis (fFhe Chinese, vol. iii. p. 244, et seg.,) who, however, falls 
into the strange mistake of supposing the whole proceeding of coloring to 
be an adulteration, and leaves his readers to infer that it is only occasion- 
ally done in order to meet the urgency of the demand, while it is now very 
well known that all the green tea of Canton has assumed that color by 
artificial dyeing. I had heard so much about tea — copper-plates, picking 
of the leaves, rolling them up with the fingers, boiling them in hot water, 
&c. &c, — that I became anxious to see with my own eyes the process of 
manufacture, of which the various books had given me such a confused 
idea. One of the great merchants conducted me not only to his own but 
also to another establishment, where the preparation of the different sorts 
was going forward. There was no concealment or mysterious proceeding ; 
everything was conducted openly, and exhibited with great civility ; indeed, 
from all I saw in the country I am almost inclined to conclude that either 
the Chinese have greatly altered, or their wish to conceal and mystify every- 
hing, of which so much has been said, never existed. 
