a fit state for transplanting. This is always done at the change of the monsoon in spring, when fine warm showers are of frequent occurrence. They are planted in rows about four feet apart, and in groups of five or six plants in the row. The distance between each group or patch is generally about four feet. The first crop of leaves is taken from these plants in the third year. When under cultivation they rarely

attain a greater height than three or four feet.

When the winters are very severe the natives tie straw bands round the bushes to protect them from the frost, and to prevent it and the snow from splitting them.

In my former work I offered some remarks upon the preference which many persons in Europe and in America have for coloured green teas, and I will now give a "full and particular account" of the colouring process as practised in the Hwuy-chow green-tea country upon those teas which are destined for the foreign market. Having noted down the process carefully at the time, I will extract verbatim from my note-book :

"The superintendent of the workmen managed the colouring part of the process himself. Having procured a portion of Prussian blue, he threw it into a porcelain bowl, not unlike a chemist's mortar, and crushed it into a very fine powder. At the same time a quantity of gypsum was produced and burned in the charcoal fires which were then roasting the teas. The object of this was to soften it in order

* Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China.

that it might be readily pounded into a very fine powder, in the same manner as the Prussian blue had been. The gypsum, having been taken out of the fire after a certain time had elapsed, readily crumbled down and was reduced to powder in the mortar. These two substances, having been thus prepared, were then mixed together in the proportion of four parts of gypsum to three parts of Prussian blue, and formed a light-blue powder, which was then ready for use.

"This colouring matter was applied to the teas during the last process of roasting. About five minutes before the tea was removed from the pansthe time being regulated by the burning of a jossstick the superintendent took a small porcelain spoon, and with it he scattered a portion of the colouring matter over the leaves in each pan. The workmen then turned the leaves rapidly round with both hands, in order that the colour might be equally diffused.

During this part of the operation the hands of the workmen were quite blue. I could not help thinking that if any green-tea drinkers had been present during the operation their taste would have been corrected, and, I may be allowed to add, improved. It seems perfectly ridiculous that a civilised people should prefer these dyed teas to those of a natural green. No wonder that the Chinese consider the natives of the west to be a race of 'barbarians.'

"One day an English gentleman in Shanghae, being in conversation with some Chinese from the

green-tea country, asked them what reasons they had for dyeing the tea, and whether it would not be better without undergoing this process. They acknowledged that tea was much better when prepared without having any such ingredients mixed with it, and that they never drank dyed teas themselves, but justly remarked that, as foreigners seemed to prefer having a mixture of Prussian blue and gypsum with their tea, to make it look uniform and pretty, and as these ingredients were cheap enough, the Chinese had no objection to supply them, especially as such teas always fetched a higher price!

"I took some trouble to ascertain precisely the quantity of colouring matter used in the process of dyeing green teas, not certainly with the view of assisting others, either at home or abroad, in the art of colouring, but simply to show green-tea drinkers in England, and more particularly in the United States of America, what quantity of Prussian blue and gypsum they imbibe in the course of one year. To 14 lbs. of tea were applied 8 mace 2 candareens of colouring matter, or rather more than an ounce. In every hundred pounds of coloured green tea consumed in England or America, the consumer actually drinks more than half a pound of Prussian blue and gypsum ! And yet, tell the drinkers of this coloured tea that the Chinese eat cats, dogs, and rats, and they will hold up their hands in amazement, and pity the poor celestials!"

Two kinds of Prussian blue are used by the tea

manufacturers--one is the kind commonly met with,

the other I have seen only in the north of China.* It is less heavy than common Prussian blue, of a bright pale tint, and very beautiful. Turmeric root is frequently employed in Canton, but I did not observe it in use in Hwuy-chow.

These

I procured samples of these ingredients from the Chinamen in the factory, in order that there might be no mistake as to what they really were. were sent home to the Great Exhibition last year, and a portion of them submitted to Mr. Warrington, of Apothecaries' Hall, whose investigations in connexion with this subject are well known. In a paper read by him before the Chemical Society, and published in its Memoirs and Proceedings,' he says,

"Mr. Fortune has forwarded from the north of China, for the Industrial Exhibition, specimens of these materials (tea dyes), which, from their appearance, there can be no hesitation in stating are fibrous gypsum (calcined), turmeric root, and Prussian blue; the latter of a bright pale tint, most likely from admixture with alumina or porcelain-clay, which admixture may account for the alumina and silica found as stated in my previous paper, and the presence of which was then attributed possibly to the employment of kaolin or agalmatolite."

I formerly mistook this for a kind of indigo.

CHAPTER VI.

My reception in the house of Wang's father A smoky Chinese

had been exposed

Chinese mode of warming themselves on a Tea-seeds, &c., obtained Anecdote of the new

Berberis Obtain some young plants of it

Deceitful character

of the Chinese Leave the far-famed Sung-lo-shan -Wang tries to cheat the chairmen Invents a story of a "great general Leave Tun-che- Mountain scenery

river

Pleasure of going down the

Gale of wind amongst the mountains — Arrive at Nechow Shaou-hing-foo Tsaou-o- Pak-wan Arrive at Ning-po.

-

AFTER this digression on the green-tea shrub, and the country where it was first found, I now resume the account of my travels.

When we reached the Sung-lo country I took up my quarters in a house which belonged to the father of my servant Wang. It was nearly dark before we arrived at the house, which was situated amongst the hills within two miles of the foot of Sung-lo. Had I fixed upon the spot myself I could not have found one better suited to the purposes I had in view. Old Mr. Wang was a farmer who at one time had been well off in the world, but, like many others, had been unfortunate, and was now very much reduced in circumstances. He received us in the kindest manner, and seemed to have great affection for his son. His wife also came to welcome us, at the same time apologising for the poor reception they gave us,