254 
ON  CHIMAPHILA  UMBELLATA. 
they  were  only  seeds,  while  towards  the  end  of  the  voyage  or 
at  its  termination  they  would  have  changed  into  healthy  young 
plants. 
«  The  watering,  closing  the  cases,  shipping,  and  last,  but  not 
least,  securing  the  good-will  of  captain  and  officers,  were  all  im- 
portant operations." 
Not  only  has  the  tea  plant  been  thus  introduced  to  the  Eastern 
States,  but  it  has  found  its  way  also  to  the  Western ;  and  our 
friends  on  both  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  sides  are  with  their 
usual  energy  setting  about  growing  it. 
But  there  still  remains  the  question  whether  they  can  turn  it 
to  profitable  account.  That  their  climate  will  be  found  to  suit 
in  some  of  the  vast  regions  of  the  West  there  can  be  no  reason- 
able doubt.  But  merely  growing  tea  plants  will  not  make  com- 
mercial tea.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the  preparation  of  it,  an 
operation  which,  as  conducted  in  China,  demands  an  enormous 
quantity  of  labor — the  article  of  which  beyond  all  others  the 
United  States  have  the  least  to  spare.  But  is  it  really  necessary 
to  prepare  tea  Chinese  fashion  ? — to  chop  it  up  into  little  balls 
and  twist  it  into  all  sorts  of  queer  shapes  with  all  sorts  of  names, 
in  order  to  give  it  its  dietetical  value  ?  Surely  not.  We  have 
ourselves  found  out  that  the  painted  article  called  green  tea  is 
not  very  wholesome  and  by  no  means  the  better  for  the  paint ; 
and  we  quite  anticipate  that  our  United  States  friends  will  have 
even  already  projected  some  sort  of  machine  that  will  produce 
good  marketable  tea  without  the  assistance  of  human  hands. 
This  indeed,  we  know,  is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Fortune  himself. — 
London.  Pharm.  Journ.  from  Gardeners1  Chronicle. 
CHEMICAL  EXAMINATION  OF  CHIMAPHILA  UMBELLATA. 
(Extracted from  an  Inaugural  Essay,) 
By  Samuel  Fairbank. 
The  cold  infusion  of  the  leaves,  made  by  displacement  is  tur- 
bid, of  a  reddish-brown  color,  acid  to  litmus,  and  possesses  the 
odor  and  taste  of  the  leaves.    Solution  of  tannic  acid  causes  no 
change,  but  if  the  infusion  be  boiled  it  becomes  nearly  trans- 
parent.   Neither  corrosive  chloride  of  mercury  nor  ferrocyanide 
of  potassium  disturb  the  infusion  when  cold ;  but  upon  being 
