temptation is great, as
the infusion of other plants is drunk instead of the true tea. The
poorer natives substitute the leaves of a species of Rhamnus or
Fallopia, which they dry; Camellia leaves are perhaps mixed up with
it, but probably to no great extent. The refuse of packing-houses is
sold to the poor at a low rate, under the name of tea endings and
tea bones; and if a few of the rarest sorts do not go abroad,
neither do the poorest. It is a necessary of life to all classes of
Chinese, and that its use is not injurious is abundantly evident
from its general acceptance and extending adoption; and the
prejudice against it among some out of China may be attributed
chiefly to the use of strong green tea, which is no doubt
prejudicial. If those who have given it up on this account will
adopt a weaker infusion of black tea, general experience is proof
that it will do them no great harm, and they may be sure that they
will not be deceived by a colored article; Neither the Chinese nor
Japanese use milk or sugar in their tea, and the peculiar taste and
aroma of the infusion is much better perceived without those
additions; nor can it be drunk so strong without tasting an
unpleasant bitterness, which the milk partly hides. The Japanese
sometimes reduce the leaves to a powder, and pour boiling water
through them in a cullender, in the same way that coffee is often
made."

The following valuable details as to the cultivation and manufacture
of tea in British India, are from interesting reports by Dr. Jameson,
Superintendent of the Company's Botanical Gardens in the North West
Provinces, published in 1847 in the Journal of the Agricultural and
Horticultural Society of Calcutta;--and from Mr. Robert Fortune's
report to the Hon. East India Company:--

_The quantity manufactured_.--The quantity of tea manufactured from
five plantations, of 89 acres in all, amounted in 1845 to 610 lb. 2
oz., and in 1846, on 115 acres, to l,023 lb. ll oz. The small
nursery of Lutchmisser, consisting of three acres of land, gave a
return in 1845 of 216 lb., or 2 maunds and 56 pounds; in 1846 the
return was 272 lbs., or 3 maunds and 32 pounds.

The small plantation of Kuppeena, established in 1841-2, and then
consisting of three acres (but increased in 1844 to four), yielded
in 1845, 1 maund and 56 pounds, and in 1846, 2 mau