ok the masses
of foliage. The operation was, on the whole, more neatly performed
than at Rio. When the tea was perfectly dry and removed from the
pan, it was placed aside in a box, shaded from the air and light,
and was considered ready for present use, on the spot; but M. Feigo
informed me, that when sent to a distance, the cases were
hermetically closed, and the tea underwent an extra dessication over
the fire.

The plantations belonging to M. Feigo, and surrounding his chagara,
are extensive, containing about 20,000 tea shrubs, of fine growth
and high vigor, most of them six or eight years old, set in regular
lines, a metre asunder from each other, and the lines with a metre
and a half between them. The soil is excellent,
argillaceo-ferruginous, as is generally the case near St. Paul.

In the Botanic Garden at St. Paul, some squares are devoted to the
growth of tea; but I am not aware that the leaves are ever subject
to preparation.

M. da Luz had invited us to inspect his tea-grounds near Nossa
Senhora da Penha, and I went thither, accompanied by Messrs.
Barandier and Houlet. The cultivation is admirable, the soil
excellent, and the tea-plants peculiarly vigorous. Each shrub was so
placed that a man can easily go all round it, and _young plants,
self-sown, were springing up below every old one_; of these offsets,
I was made welcome to as many as I could take away, and should have
had a great stock, but that the ground had been very recently
cleared. M. da Luz showed me his magazines of prepared tea, which
were extensive and well stocked.

Hence I went to the property of a lady, Donna Gertrude Gedioze
Larceda, situated at the foot of Jarigur, a mountain famed for its
gold mines, and passed two days in exploring this celebrated
locality, and then visited the Colonel Anastosio on my way back to
St. Paul. These plantations are in the most prosperous condition,
situated on a sloping and well-manured tract behind the habitations.
The shrubs are generally kept low, and frequently cut, so as to,
make them branching, by which the process of picking the leaves is
rendered easier. There may be 60,000 or 70,000 plants, but a third
of them were only set a year before. Every arrangement is
excellently conducted here; the pans kept very clean, though perhaps
rather thin from l