Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 095.djvu/459

452 his imagination, he will experience a rich treat indeed. To the geologist, in particular, this place will furnish attractions of no ordinary kind. A Murchison may yet visit them, who will give us some idea how these strange hills were formed, and at what period of the world's existence they assumed these strange shapes which arc now presented to the traveller's wondering gaze."

Mr. Fortune returned from the Bohea district by Ponching-hien, then across the mountains again, to the province of Chekiang, and by Ching-hoo and Ne-chow to Shanghae, whence he took ship to Hong-Kong and India. As a result of his new observations on the tea-plant, our traveller remarks as follows:

The principal tea districts of China, and those which supply the greater portion of the teas exported to Europe and America, lie between the 25th and 31st degrees of north latitude, and the best districts are those between 27 deg. and 31 deg.

The plant in cultivation about Canton, from which the Canton teas are made, is known to botanists as the Thea bohea, while the more northern variety, found in the green-tea country, has been called Thea viridis. The first appears to have been named upon the supposition that all the black teas of the Bohea mountains were obtained from this species, and the second was called viridis because it furnished the green teas of commerce. Those names seem to have misled the public, and hence many persons, until a few years back, firmly believed that black tea could be made only from Thea bohea, and green tea only from Thea viridis.

In my "Wanderings in China," published in 1846, I made some observations upon the plants from which tea Is made in different parts of China. While I acknowledged that the Canton plant, known to botanists as Thea bohea, appeared distinct from the more northern one called Thea viridis, I endeavoured to show that both black and green teas could be made from either, and that the difference in the appearance of these teas, in so far as colour was concerned, depended upon manipulation, and upon that only. In proof of this I remarked that the black-tea plant found by me near Foo-chow-foo, at no great distance from the Bohea hills, appeared identical with the green-tea plant of Chekiang.

These observations were met by the objection, that, although I had been in many of the tea districts near the coast, yet I had not seen those greater ones inland which furnish the teas of commerce. And this was perfectly true. The same objection can hardly be urged now, however, as I have visited both the green-tea country of Hwuy-chow and the black-tea districts about Woo-e-shan, and during these long journeys I have seen no reason to alter the opinions I had previously formed upon the subject.

It is quite true that the Chinese rarely make the two kinds of tea in one district, but this is more for the sake of convenience and from custom than for any other reason. The workmen, too, generally make that kind of tea best with which they have had most practice. But while this is generally the case in the great tea districts, there are some exceptions. It is now well known that the fine Moning districts near the Poyang Lake, which are daily rising in importance on account of the superior character of their black teas, formerly produced nothing else but green teas. At Canton green and black teas are made from the Thea bohea at the pleasure of the manufacturer, and according to demand.

After detailing the differences in the manufacture of black and green teas, Mr. Fortune adds, that these not only fully account for the difference in colour, but also for the effect produced on some constitutions by green tea, such as nervous irritability, sleepnessness, &c. This, he says, is