TEA, or THEA, the Tea-plant; a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the polyandria class of plants.
This shrub, formerly described by Dr. Breynius, in his Century of Exotic Plants, published at Dantzick in 1678, is of a very slow growth, and diminutive size. It has a black, woody, irregularly branched root. The rising stem soon spreads into many irregular branches and twigs. These at the lower end and near the ground often seem to be more in number than they really are; for several seeds being put together in one hole, it frequently happens that two, three, or more shrubs grow up together, and so close to one another, as to be easily mistaken for one, by ignorant or less attentive observers. The bark is dry, thin, weak, chestnut-coloured, firm, and adheres closely to the wood. It is covered with a very thin skin; which being removed, the bark appears, of a greenish colour, a bitter, nauseous, and astringent taste, with a smell much like the leaves of the hazel-nut tree, only more disagreeable and offensive. The wood is hard, fibrous, of a greenish colour, inclining to white, and of a very offensive smell when green. The pith is very small, and adheres close to the wood. The branches and twigs are slender, of different sizes, irregularly beset with simple leaves, standing on very small, fat, green footstalks; and resembling, when full grown, the leaves of the garden cherry-tree; but when young, tender, and gathered for use, those of the common spindle-tree, the colour only excepted. The leaves are smooth on both sides, closely and unequally sawed on the edge, of a dirty dark green colour, which is somewhat lighter on the back, where the nerves being raised considerably, leave so many hollows or furrows on the opposite side. They have one very conspicuous nerve in the middle, which is branched out on each side into five, six, or seven thin transverse ribs, of different lengths, and bent backwards near the edges of the leaves; between these transverse ribs, run a number of small veins. The leaves when fresh have no smell at all; and though astringent and bitterish, as we observed above, are not nauseous, as the bark. They differ very much in substance, size, and shape, according to their age and the situation and nature of the soil in which the shrub is planted. From the wings of the leaves come forth the flowers in autumn. These
con-
Tea. continue to grow till late in winter; and are composed of six petals, one or two of which are generally shrunk, and fall far short of the largeness and beauty of the others. The footstalk of the flower is about half an inch long, and ends in six very small green leaves, which serve instead of the calix or flower-cup. This description, applied by Kämpfer to the shrub, which, as he pretends, produces all the different sorts or preparations of tea, corresponds, says Linnaeus, to a particular species only, termed by him bohea; for some tea-plants, he observes after Dr Hill, produce flowers composed of nine petals, which must therefore constitute a distinct species from such as have only six. From this circumstance is constructed the other species of that author, thea viridis, or green-tea, the flowers of which have always nine petals. The leaves also are much larger than those of the bohea, and of a brighter green.
To proceed in our description. Within the petals, which are of a very unpleasant bitterish taste, are placed many white stamens, exceeding small, as in the wild rose, with yellow heads, in shape not unlike a heart. Kämpfer reckoned in one flower 230 of these stamens. To the flowers succeed the fruits in great plenty; these are composed of one, two, but most commonly of three, capsules, of the bigness of wild-plums, adhering, like the seed-vessels of the palma christi, to one common footstalk as to a centre, but divided into three pretty deep partitions. Each capsule contains a husk, nut, and seed. The kernel or seed is reddish, of a firm substance like silberds, contains a great quantity of oil, and is very apt to grow rank, which is the reason why there are scarce two in ten that will germinate when sown. The natives make no manner of use of either the flowers or kernels.
The shrub must be, at least, of three years growth before the leaves, which it then bears in plenty, are fit to be plucked. In seven years time, or thereabouts, it rises to a man's height; but as it then grows slowly, and bears but few leaves, the natives generally cut it down quite to the stem, after having first gathered what few leaves it produced. The next year, out of the remaining stem, proceed many young twigs and branches, which bear such abundance of leaves, as will sufficiently compensate for the loss of the former shrub. Some defer the operation of cutting down to the stem till the shrub is of ten years growth.
The leaves must not be tore off by handfuls, but plucked carefully, one by one; and are not be gathered all at once, but at different times. Those who pluck their shrubs thrice a-year, begin their first gathering about the end of February. The shrub then bears but a few leaves, which are very tender and young, and not yet fully opened, as being scarce above two or three days growth. These small and tender leaves are reckoned much better than the rest, and, because of their scarcity and price, are disposed of only to princes and rich people; for which reason they are called Imperial-tea, and by some the flower of tea. The second gathering, and the first of those who gather but twice a-year, is made about the latter end of March or beginning of April: some of the leaves are then already come to perfection, others are but half-grown: both, however, are plucked off promiscuously;
though care is afterwards taken, previous to the usual preparation, to arrange them into classes, according to their size and goodness. The third and last gathering, which is also the most plentiful, is made in the end of May, when the leaves have attained their full growth, both in number and size. The leaves of this gathering are arranged in like manner as the former, according to their size and goodness, into different classes, the lowest of which contains the coarsest leaves of all, being full two months grown, and that sort which is commonly drunk by the vulgar.
The preparation of the leaves consists in drying or roasting them when fresh gathered, over the fire in an iron pan, and rolling them when hot with the palm of the hand on a mat till they become curled. The particulars of this preparation, as related by the ingenious author from whom this description is extracted, are much too tedious for our purpose. The reader is therefore referred to the work itself. Vide Kämpfer's History of Japan, vol. ii. appendix 1.
The tea, after having undergone a sufficient roasting and curling, must, when cold, be put up and carefully kept from the air. In this, indeed, the whole art of preserving it chiefly consists; because the air, in those hot climates, dissipates its extremely subtle and volatile parts much sooner than it would in our colder European countries. The Chinese put it up in boxes of a coarse tin, which, if they be very large, are inclosed in wooden cases of fir, all the clefts being first carefully stopped both within and without. After this manner also it is sent abroad into foreign countries. The Japanese keep their stock of the common tea in large earthen pots, with a narrow mouth. The better sort of tea, namely, that which the emperor himself and the great men make use of, is kept in porcelain pots or vessels, which are supposed to improve its virtues. The coarse tea of the third gathering is not so easily injured by the air as the other sorts; for tho' its virtues are comparatively fewer and less sensible, yet are they more constant and fixed. The country people keep it, as well as the other sorts which they use, in straw-baskets, made like barrels, which they put under the roofs of their houses, near the hole which lets out the smoke; being of opinion that nothing is better than smoke to preserve the virtues of the leaves, and even improve them. Some put it up with common mugwort flowers, or the young leaves of a plant called sasanqua, which they believe renders it much more agreeable. Other odoriferous and aromatic substances are found, upon trial, to produce no such beneficial effect.
The tea, as it is taken inwardly, is prepared in two different ways. The first used by the Chinese, and now all over Europe, is nothing else but a simple infusion of the leaves in hot water. The other way, which is peculiar to the Japanese, is by grinding. In this preparation, the leaves are, by means of a hand-mill made of a black-greenish stone called serpentine stone, reduced into a fine delicate powder, which being mixed with hot water into a thin pulp is afterwards sipped. This tea is called thick tea, to distinguish it from the simple infusion, and is drunk every day by all the rich people and great men in Japan.
The narcotic quality of the fresh unprepared leaves of tea, mentioned above, is destroyed in a great mea-
sure by a repeated and gradual roasting. This operation renders it exhilarating, refreshing, and cleansing. Kämpfer observes, that tea is particularly serviceable in washing away that tartarous matter which is the efficient cause of calculous concretions, nephritic and gouty disempers; and affirms, that among the great tea-drinkers of Japan, he never met with any who were troubled with the gout or stone.
The leaves of tea, say writers on the Materia Medica, are much more used for pleasure than as medicine: the Bohea, however, is esteemed softening, nourishing, and proper in all inward decays; the green is diuretic, carries an agreeable roughness with it into the stomach, which gently astringes the fibres, and gives them such a tenacity as is necessary for a good digestion. Improper or excessive use may no doubt render this or any thing else prejudicial; but, in general, there are very few herbs employed, either in food or medicine, which, used with moderation, are better, pleasanter, or safer, than tea.
We do not find that the tea-plant grows naturally beyond the 35th degree of north latitude on the one hand, and the 45th degree on the other.
TEA-TREE of New Zealand, is a species of myrtle, of which an infusion was drunk by Captain Cook's people in their voyages round the world. Its leaves were finely aromatic, astringent, and had a particular pleasant flavour at the first infusion; but this went off at the next filling up of the tea-pot, and a great degree of bitterness was then extracted; for which reason it was never suffered to be twice infused. In a fine soil in thick forests this tree grows to a considerable size; sometimes 30 or 40 feet in height, and one foot in diameter. On a hilly and dry exposure, it degenerates into a shrub of five or six inches; but its usual size is about eight or ten feet high, and three inches in diameter. In that case its stem is irregular and unequal, dividing very soon into branches which rise at acute angles; and only bear leaves and flowers at top. The flowers are white, and very ornamental to the whole plant.