en the fire is smoky,
the flavor varies with the nature of the smoke. The stalks are roasted
equally with the leaves, and are said to add fully as much to the
strength of the infusion. By roasting the whole becomes brittle, and
is reduced to a coarse powder by rubbing between the hands. In this
state it is ready for use, and the general mode of preparing the
beverage is by infusion, as in the case of common tea.

That it would soon become a most valuable article of diet amongst the
laboring classes, and on ship board particularly, if, once brought
into use, there can be no doubt. The coffee-tree can be grown to
advantage for the leaf in the lowlands of every tropical country,
where the soil is sufficiently fertile, whilst it requires a different
soil and climate to produce the fruit[7]. Dr. Hooker, in the Jury
Reports, observes upon the prepared coffee leaves, submitted by Dr.
Gardner, of Ceylon, to be used as tea leaves, that they are worthy of
notice as affording a really palatable drink when infused as tea is;
more so, perhaps, than coffee is to the uninitiated. That this
preparation contains a considerable amount of the nutritious
principles of coffee, is evident from the analysis; but as the leaves
can only be collected in a good state at the expense of the coffee
bush, it is doubtful whether the coffee produced by the berries be
not, after all, the cheapest, as it certainly is the best.

TEA.

The immense traffic in the produce of this simple shrub, the growth of
a remarkable country, hitherto almost entirely isolated from the
western nations, is one of the most remarkable illustrations of the
enterprise and energy of modern commerce. The trade in tea now gives
employment to upwards of 60,000 tons of British shipping, and about
ten millions sterling of English capital, producing a revenue to this
country of nearly six millions sterling.

Every reflecting man will admit that articles of such vast consumption
as tea and coffee (amounting together to more than 343,500 tons
annually), forming the chief liquid food of whole nations, must
exercise a great influence upon the health of the people.

There is scarcely any country in the world in which a dietetic drink
or beverage resembling tea, is not prepared, and in general use, from
some exotic or indigenous shrub. The two chief plants laid under
contribution are, however, the Chinese tea-plant, and a species of
holly peculiar to South America, producing the Par