CHAPTER XI

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The Tea-plant of China.--The Species found in the Green and Black Tea Districts--Best Situation for Tea Plantations.--Remarks on their Management.--Seasons, and Method, of gathering the Leaves.--Manufacture of Tea.--Cottages amongst the Tea Hills.--Furnaces and Drying Pans.--First Application of Heat.--Rolling Process.--Exposure of the Leaves to the Air.--Second Heating.--Length of Time required.--Two kinds of Tea.--Difference in the Manufacture of each.--Selecting and packing Teas.--Appearance and Colour of the Leaf.--Peculiar Taste of Foreigners for Dyed Teas.--Good Sense of the Chinese.--Tea Merchants.--Their Visits to the Tea Hills.--Mode of buying from the small Growers.--Black Tea District in Fokien.--Teas divided into two Kinds.--Peculiar Method of preparing each.--Cause of their difference in Colour.--Flowers used in scenting the finer Teas.--Sir John Francis Davis's Remarks on different kinds of Teas sold at Canton.

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