Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester].

  • Lankester, Edwin, 1814-1874.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Edwin Lankester]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    this country by the Lords Arlington and Ossory; and yet, from a period earlier than any to which the mem- ories of any of the existing generation can reach, tea has been one of the principal necessaries of life among all classes of the community. ‘To provide a sufficient supply of this aliment, many thousand tons of the finest mercantile navy in the world are annually em- ployed in trading with a people by whom all dealings with foreigners are merely tolerated; and from this recently-acquired taste, a very large and easily- collected revenue is obtained by the state. The tea-plant is indigenous to China or Japan, and probably to both. It has been used among the natives of the former country from time immemorial; and, from the age of Confucius, has been the constant theme of praise with their poets. It is only in a particular tract of the Chinese empire that the plant is cultivated; and this tract, which is situated on the eastern side, between the 30th and 33d degree of north latitude, is distinguished by the natives as ‘ the tea country.? The more northern part of China would be too cold; and further south the heat would be too great. There are, however, a few small plan- tations to be seen near to Canton. The tree or shrub whence the tea of commerce is: derived, is the Thea of botanists. There is only one species of this plant; and although it has been said by some writers that there are two varieties, differing in the breadth of their leaves, this assertion is as con- fidently denied by others, who affirm that the differ- ences discernible in the qualities of the dried leaves are owing to the period of their growth at which they. are gathered, and to some variations in the methods employed for curing them. The Chinese give to the plant the name of tcha or tha. It is propagated by them from seeds, which are deposited in rows four or five feet asunder;