Useful Knowledge: Volume 2. Vegetables / Or, a familiar account of the various productions of nature

by William Bingley

Tea, both black and green, is sometimes imported in balls from the weight of two ounces to the size of peas.

The dried leaves of the tea plant are a commodity which, a century and a half ago, were scarcely known as an article of trade. The earliest importation of tea into Europe is said to have been by a Dutch merchant in 1610; but the time of its first introduction into England has not been correctly ascertained. So scarce an article was it, for many years after the above period, that, in 1666, twenty-two pounds and three quarters of tea, estimated at fifty shillings a pound, were presented, as a valuable gift, to King Charles the Second. The first importation of tea by the East India Company was in 1669, and this consisted only of two canisters, weighing 143lb. 8oz. So rapidly, however, has the consumption of this article since increased, that, notwithstanding the immense distance from which it is brought, it now amounts to more than twenty millions of pounds' weight per annum. Such is, at present, the extent of the tea trade, that it affords constant employment for at least 50,000 tons of shipping, and 6,000 seamen; and its importance to us is the greater since it has been the means of opening, in China, a market for the sale of woollen goods, one of the most essential articles of our manufacture, to the amount of more than one million of pounds sterling per annum.

If good tea be taken in moderate quantity it is considered by medical men to be beneficial, by exhilarating the spirits and invigorating the system; but, when taken too copiously, it is apt to occasion weakness, tremor, and other bad symptoms.

The tea plant may be propagated in the temperate climates of Europe, as well as in the Indies; under the shelter of a south wall it will even flourish in our own gardens. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that the fresh leaves, if used for tea, produce giddiness and stupefaction; but these noxious properties are capable of being dissipated by the process of roasting.

In some of the southern parts of England there are smugglers who have reduced to a regular process the management of the leaves of the ash, the sloe, and some other trees, for the adulteration of tea. The article thus prepared has the name of smouch, and is sometimes mixed in the proportion of about one-third, with the ordinary teas. The preparation of it, however, if discovered, is subject to very heavy penalties.

175. CLOVES are the unexpanded flower-buds of an East Indian tree (Caryophyllus aromaticus, Fig. 50), somewhat resembling the laurel in its height, and in the shape of its leaves.

The leaves are in pairs, oblong, large, spear-shaped, and of bright green colour. The flowers grow in clusters, which terminate the branches, and have the calyx divided into four small and pointed segments. The petals are small, rounded, and of bluish colour; and the seed is an oval berry.

In the Molucca islands, where the preparation of different spices was formerly carried on by the Dutch colonists to great extent, the culture of the clove-tree was a very important pursuit. It has even been asserted that, in order to secure a lucrative branch of commerce in this article to themselves, they destroyed all the trees growing in other islands, and confined the propagation of them to that of Ternate only. But it appears that, in 1770 and 1772, both clove and nutmeg trees were transplanted from the Moluccas into the islands of France and Bourbon; and, subsequently, into some of the colonies of South America, where they have since been cultivated with great success.

At a certain season of the year the clove-tree produces a vast profusion of flowers. When these have attained the length of about half an inch, the four points of the calyx being prominent, and having in the middle of them the leaves of the petals folded over each other, and forming a small head about the size of a pea, they are in a fit state to be gathered. This operation is performed betwixt the months of October and February, partly by the hand, partly by hooks, and partly by beating the trees with bamboos. The cloves are either received on cloths spread beneath the trees, or are suffered to fall on the ground, the herbage having previously been cut and swept for that purpose. They are subsequently dried by exposure for a while to the smoke of wood fires, and afterwards to the rays of the sun. When first gathered they are of reddish colour, but, by drying, they assume a deep brown cast.

This spice yields a very fragrant odour, and a bitterish, pungent, and warm taste. It is sometimes employed as a hot and stimulating medicine, but is more frequently used in culinary preparations. When fresh gathered, cloves will yield on pressure a fragrant, thick, and reddish oil; and, by distillation, a limpid essential oil. The latter is imported into Europe, but is frequently adulterated, and sometimes even to the amount of nearly half its weight. Oil of cloves is used by many persons, though very improperly, for curing the tooth-ache, since, from its pungent quality, it is apt to corrode the gums, and injure the adjacent teeth. When the tooth is carious, and will admit of it, a bruised clove is much to be preferred.