[46] I am informed by intelligent persons, who have resided some time at Canton, that the Tea about that city affords very little smell whilst growing. The same is observed of the Tea plants in England; and also of the dried specimens from China. We are not hence to conclude, that art alone conveys to Teas when cured the smell peculiar to each kind; for our vegetables, grasses for instance, have little or no smell till dried, and made into hay.
[47] See Thunberg’s Flora Japonica, from which work the Botanic History of the Olea Fragrans is chiefly taken.
[48] The hundredth part of a grain of copper, dissolved in a pint of liquor, strikes a sensible blue with volatile alkalies. Neumann’s Chemistry, by Lewis, p. 62. The finest imperial and bloom Teas shewed no sign of the presence of this metal by experiment.
[49] See Short on Tea, p. 16. Boerhaave attributed the verdure of green Tea to this substance.
[50] “It is confidently said in the country, that no plates of copper are ever employed for that purpose. Indeed, scarcely any utensil used in China is 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, rendering them dry and crisp.” Sir G. Staunton’s Embassy, Vol. II. p. 465.
[51] Kæmpfer, Amœnit. Exot. p. 625. History of Japan, Vol. II. App. p. 10. 16.
[52] Osbeck’s Voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 299.
[53] This is called koitsjaa, that is, thick Tea, to distinguish it from that made by infusion.
[54] An inferior kind of Tea is infused, and drank in the Chinese manner. Sect. VI. II. and Sect. IX. I.
[55] History of China, Vol. IV. p. 22.