Bohea Tea.
I infused all the sorts of green and bohea Teas I could procure, and expanded the different leaves on paper, to compare their respective size and texture, intending thereby to discover their age. I found the leaves of green Tea as large as those of bohea, and nearly as fibrous; which would lead one to suspect, that the difference does not so much depend upon the age, as upon the other circumstances.
We know that in Europe the soil, culture, and exposure, have great influence on all kinds of vegetables: but the same species of plants differ in the same province, and even in the same district; and in Japan, and particularly along the continent of China, it must be much more considerable, where the air is in some parts very cold, in others moderate, or warm almost to an extreme. I am persuaded that the method of preparation must also have no little influence. I have dried the leaves of some European plants in the manner described (Sect. VI.) which so much resembled the foreign Tea, that the infusion made from them has been seen and drunk without suspicion. In these preparations which I made, some of the leaves retained a perfect curl, and a fine verdure like the best green Tea; and others cured at the same time were more like the bohea[44].
I would not, however, lay too much stress upon the result of a few trials, nor endeavour to preclude further enquiries about a subject which at some future period may prove of more immediate concern to this nation.
We might still try to discover whether other arts, than are yet known here, are not used with Tea before its exportation from China, to produce the difference of colour[45], and flavour[46], peculiar to different sorts. An intelligent friend of mine informs me, that in a set of Chinese drawings, in his possession, representing the whole process of manufacturing Tea, there are in one sheet the figures of several persons apparently separating the different kinds of Tea, and drying it in the sun, with several baskets landing near them filled with a very white substance, and in considerable quantity. To what use this may be applied is uncertain, as well as what the substance is; yet there is no doubt, he thinks, that it is used in the manufacturing of Tea, as the Chinese seldom bring any thing into their pieces but such as relate in some respect to the business before them.
Olea Fragrans.
J. Miller del: et so:
We are better acquainted with a vegetable substance which has been employed by the Asiatics in giving a flavour to Tea. This is the Olea Fragrans, whose flowers are frequently to be met with in Teas exported from China: and as the plant is now not unfrequent in the gardens near the metropolis, I am enabled to give an engraving of the plant and its botanical history[47].