1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

24t

for a decoction of It does not appear to have been drank until the time of the Suy dynasty, when the Emperor Wass-te, suffering from headache, was cured by drinking an infusion of tea leaves, by the advice of a Buddhist priest. In the early seventh century this manner of using the shrub was general, and it has maintained its popularity unto the present time, making itself friends wherever it is introduced. The tea-plant somewhat resembles the Camellia Japonica, and Linnaeus, imagining that the black and green teas came from different shrubs, named them Tkea bohea and Thea viridiss Fortune has definitely settled that both green and black tea are made off the same plants, and it is now taken that there is but one tea-plant, the Thea Sinensis, of which, however, there are several varieties, induced by climate, soil, etc. Tea-plants are grown from seeds, and are made bushy by pinching off the leading shoots. They are planted in rows, each plant being three or four feet distant from the other, and the leaves are stripped in the fourth of fifth year of its growth, and are plucked until the tenth or tw^elfth, when the plant is grubbed up. May and June are the general months of picking, which is done mostly by women ; but the time varies according to the district. The young and early leaves give the finest and most delicate teas, but the flavour very much depends upon the drying and roasting ; but still some soils and climates have a great deal to do with the taste, the finest tea in China growing between the 27th and 31st parallels of latitude. Q