Chimonanthus—or “English tea,” recently obtained from the leaves of that plant, and used as a substitute for China tea, as well as for mixing with it. Originally a native of China and Japan, it has been acclimatized in that country, where it is at present extensively used alone and as an adulterant.
Coffee-leaf Tea—in use in many of the Coffee-growing countries, most notably in Arabia, Sumatra and the West India islands. It is prepared from the roasted leaves of the coffee-tree in the same manner as China tea, the natives of these countries particularly preferring it to any decoction made from the berries of the latter.
Strawberry-leaf Tea—obtained from the leaves of the common strawberry shrub, carefully dried and cured after the manner of the China plant. They are prepared and used in Germany particularly as a tea; they yield a very close imitation of the liquor and flavor of the regular tea of commerce, so much so that quite an industry has sprung up in their cultivation and preparation as a substitute for tea in that country. The celebrated “Faham tea” of the Mauritius being still another remarkable substitute for the tea of China. But as with many of the foregoing should be regarded in the light of medicine rather than that of a regular beverage.
That this characteristic element Theine should be present not only in the Tea-plant of China and Coffee-plant of Arabia, but also in so many others widely differing, so remote in situation, and so unlike in appearance, and from which millions of people in all parts of the world draw a refreshing and exhilarating beverage, is a striking and beautiful fact in nature. Under such a fact there may be more significance than science has yet elicited.
CHAPTER IV.
CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION.
The Chinese, from time immemorial, have been accustomed to raising their tea on every available space of ground; on barren hill-side, marshy plain and other patches of land unsuited for other purposes. Most of the gardens are, however, situated in hilly districts, but in almost all of them the soil is poor and sandy, varying considerably, even in districts alike famous for the perfect growth of the plant.
The soil of the gardens situated on the hills is composed chiefly of a brownish clay, containing large proportions of vegetable matter intermixed with fragments of slate, quartz and sand-stone, held together by a calcareous basis of granite. A soil, in fact, very similar to that which produces pine and scrub-oak, while on the plains it is darker, but containing a still greater proportion of vegetable matter, enriched by sewerage but invariably well underdrained by natural declivities. Yet while many of the gardens are situated on the tops of mountains, among pine trees in some districts, and along river banks on others, the Chinese, as a rule, prefer ground that is only moderately elevated, in sunny sites, everything else being favorable. Many of the latter yield more abundantly, but the product of the former is invariably the finest in quality.
With regard to climatic essentials the plant endures a tropical temperature well, at the same time accommodating itself to the cold of winter without injury. But when cultivated for commercial uses in such latitudes the seasons are found too short for its profitable production there, and while it is successfully grown at zero cold in some districts, it is nevertheless most lucratively cultivated in climates where the thermometer rarely falls more than six degrees below the freezing point. The climate varies to a considerable extent in the different districts of China where tea is grown, being excessively warm in the southern, and intensely cold in the northern provinces, snow being on the ground for days together in the latter or green tea producing districts. And though it has been proved by experiment that this variety will bear a greater degree of cold than the black, considerable snow falls annually in the province of Fo-kien, where Black teas are grown. The most important climatic consideration, however, is the amount of rain-fall, a dry climate being altogether unfit for tea cultivation; a hot, moist or damp one being proved the best. The rain-fall in the most profitable tea districts ranges from 80 to 100 inches per annum, the more falling in the spring months the better, and that too must be equally diffused. But where irrigation can be systematically introduced, this is of less importance.