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Show 296 TEA TREE. TEA TREE, and some places produce it in greater perfection and more delicious than others *. sa 4 According to the accurate account of sir George Staunton, the largest and oldest leaves, which are the least esteemed, and destined for the use of the lowest classes of the people, are often exposed to sale with little previous manipulagon, andstill fe taining that kind of vegetable taste whigh) is common to most fresh plants, but which vanishesin little time, whilst the more essential flavour, characteristic of each particular vegetable, remains long without diminution. bourers *, Chinese drawings, though somewhat rudel y executed, exhibit a faithful picture-of what they are inten ded to represent. From a set of these, giving the whole process of gathering and mana facturing the tree, we learn that the tree, or rather shrub, grows for the most part in hilly countries, often ontheir rocky sum. mits and steep declivities. Accordingly, sir George Staunton informs us, that vast tracts of hilly land are planted with it, particularly in the province of Fo-chen:! and chevalier Thun. berg says, that he met withit frequently in Japan, both on the borders of cultivated lands, and upon such mountains and downs as did not well answer the trouble of cultivation. It appears also from these drawings that the shrub s are not much taller than a man’s middle: the gatherers are never represented climb= ing, they sometimes make use of hook ed sticks, but these seem rather intended to draw the branches towards them, when they hang over places difficult of access. They pick the leaves’ first ina basket, which are soon after gathe red into different sorts, and cured But the young leaves undergo no inconsiderable preparation before they are delivered to the purchaser: every leaf passes through the fingers of a female, who rolls it up almost to the form it had assumed belong it became expandedin the progress of its growth. It is afterwards placed upon thin plates of earthen-ware or iron, made much thinner than is executed byartists out of China. It is confidently said in the country, that no plates of copper + nae ever employed for that purpose. Indeed, scarcely any utensil, used in Chinais of that metal, the chief application of which is for coin. ‘The earthen or iron plates are placed over a charcoal fire, which draws all remaining moisture from the leaves, ren- dering them dry and crisp. The colour and astringency of green tea is derived from the early period at which the leaves are plucked, and which, like unripe fruit, are generally green and acrid. For exportation, the tea, as is well known, is packed * Travels, vol. iy. p. 42,43, Engl. edit. + Thisisa prevailing prejudice; and green tea is vulgarly supposed to acquire its colour by means ofverdigris, as some pickles have their colour heightened by putting into the vinegara copper halfpenny. Bat ee positively says, that the tea is torrified on plates of iron. The writer of nA Macartney’s Voyage asserts the same thing; nor could { discover the by: es quantity of copper, which is easily detected by means of chemistry. F a who writes on the tea tree in the Asiatic Annual Register, says, the Chi- nese all agree there is but one sort or species of the tea tree; and that difference in tea arises from the soil-and mannerof curing. As the malt : either brown, producing our porter, or pale, forming our amber-coloure ale, from the manner ofdrying, sothe tea is supposed to be made brown : ; < by a quick heat, and the green :is produ ackk heat, reat, and? nore ced by aslac hi : * tener repeated the careful drying, which in consequenceis obliged to be oftener repeated, ; ‘ : * black teas: being as often nt assix six 0 or seven dried but twice, and the green_as as i } : s. or tea trees. Some doubts about the two kinds of shrubs, or tea trees, t making5 , : : are detailed . le iin n other other places the distinctions, likewise long article places of this this long at times, 997 in large chests lined with very thin plates’ of lead; and it is pressed down into these chests bythe naked feet of Chinese Ja. by drying them in iron kettles placed upon a range of stoves, like those in a chemist’s labor atory, after which the Women chiefly work, and curl the leaves one by one. They likewise dry it by spreading it abroad in shallow baskets in the sun; and, by means. of sieves, separate! the larger from the smaller leaves, and these again from the dust. The tea is then packed up in chests for the market, The Chinese put the finer kinds of tea into conic vessels, like sugar loaves, made of tutanag, tin, or lead, covering them with ‘neat packing of bamboo. The comm on tea is put into base kets, out of whichit is emptied, and packed in boxes or chests} 4$ soon as it is sold to the Euro peans +. It is not known what arts are used in China to give a variety of colour and flavour to their teas, which cannot all be satis. factorily accounted for from soil, situation, and the different ‘tasons at which the leaves are gathe red. In Japan the produce eae1 ; * Embassy, vol. ii, p- 465. i ass i The practice of employing ironor earthen . . : Plates to dry the tea uponis, perhaps, a mistake, as the process is called "tching, and a tatche exactly resemblesou r pitchkettle. Y Lettsom, p- 36. Q 2 |