Tea tree

“ How the inestimable qualities which lie latent in the green leaf of the Tea tree or bush were discovered and developed by the Chinese is one of those mysteries which we shall never solve. For it is a remarkable fact that neither the green leaf of the tea plant, nor the tea leaf dried without mans agency, conveys to human senses any hint of the agreeable or valuable qualities for which tea is esteemed, and which have been developed by the art of man. ”

“ To particularize further, and yet generalize at the same time, we will say here that the Tea plant or tree is greatly modified in hardiness, in height, in size of leaf, and in the quality of the leaf for a beverage, by soil, by moisture, tillage, and climate. Some soils and some climates develop a tea plant decidedly more suitable for a green tea than for a black tea, and vice-versa. The Formosa Oolong, with its natural flowery fragrance is a product of a peculiar soil, said to be a clay topped with rich humus. ”

“ Fothergill, to whom I have been indebted for many dried specimens and flowers of the Tea-tree from China. If the reader [vii] compare this plate with the following description, he will have as clear an idea of this exotic shrub, as can at present be exhibited.
A few young Tea plants have lately been introduced into some of the most curious botanic gardens about London; hence it seems probable that this very distinguished vegetable will become a denizen of England, and such of her colonies as may be deemed most favourable to its propagation. ”

“ In about seven years the shrub rises to a man's height, and as it then bears few leaves, and grows slowly, it is cut down to the stem, which occasions an exuberance of fresh shoots and leaves the succeeding summer. In Japan, the tea-tree is cultivated round the borders of the fields, without regard to soil, but as the Chinese export great quantities of tea, they plant whole fields with it. The tea-trees that yield often the finest leaves, grow on the steep declivities of hills, where it is dangerous and in some cases impracticable to collect them. ”

“ On the edges of swampy rivers, and in swamps generally, grows the tea tree, which is so called from its leaves being occasionally used as a substitute for tea. It is a sure indication of a spring when there is no surfacewater. ”

“ Two methods of preserving the seeds have put us in possession of a few young plants of the true Tea-tree of China; one is, by inclosing the seeds in bees wax, after they have been well dried in the sun ”

“ The Tea-tree produces flowers similar to these of the Dog-rose, and which are succeeded by fruits of the size of sloes, two or three growing together:—it may be propagated in the temperate climates of Europe, as well as in the Indies, by setting the seeds in holes, about five inches deep, and at regular distances from each other. No particular care is requisite in its culture; but the ground must be cleared of weeds: at the expiration of three years, the leaves are fit to be gathered. ”

“ The narrow-leaved tea-tree, in shrubs from five to seven feet high, and the broad-leaved tea-tree from twenty to twenty-five feet high, grew on a sandy loam, with many ant-hills between them; the little Severn tree and the glaucous Terminalia preferred the light sandy soil with small ironstone pebbles, on which the ant-hills were rare, or entirely wanting; the raspberry-jam tree crowded round water-holes, which were frequently rocky; and the bloodwood, the leguminous Iron-bark, the box, and apple-gum, formed patches of open forest. ”

“ Whether the difference was produced by climate, by soil, or in what way, no one knows, and here we have only to do with the facts that they do differ in every respect. A purely indigenous plant or tree (for in its wild state it may more properly be called the latter) grows with one stem or trunk, and runs up to 15 and 18 feet high. It is always found in thick jungle, and would thus appear to like shade. I believe it does when young; but I am quite sure, if the jungle were cleared round an indigenous Tea-tree found in the forest, it would thrive better from that day. ”

“ On the top of this land you must fancy a thick wood of all sorts and sizes of trees, and amongst these the Tea tree, struggling for existence; the ground here and there having a natural ditch cut by the rain water, which forms so many small Islands. ”

“ In the district of this little town, is a pleasant mountain of the same name, which is thought to possess the most favourable soil and climate for the culture of Tea, on which account it is inclosed with hedges, and likewise surrounded with a broad ditch for farther security. The trees are planted upon this mountain in such a manner as to form regular rows, with intervening walks. Persons are appointed to superintend the place, and preserve the leaves from injury or dirt. ”

“ As the Tea-tree grows principally between the 30th and 40th degrees of latitude, it might be easily raised in Europe: indeed, from the success with which plantations of this shrub have lately been established by a society of nuns in Franconia, near Würzburg, there is great reason to believe, that it would also prosper in the southern counties of Britain, if proper attention were paid, till it become habituated to our climate. There are, besides, many indigenous vegetables that may be advantageously substituted ”

“ Examined a place where the tea-tree and wattles were very green and luxuriant looking; it appeared like a swamp in winter, but quite dry now. Was struck by the singularity of some tea-trees growing, of a large size, both up the sides and on the tops of high sandhills, but which appeared to rest upon limestone. Got a view to the east and south of the range. The country presented the same appearance as before. It must be remarked that the grass was all parched and withered and of a yellow straw colour ”

“ The plants I speak of were from one to three feet high; if they have grown any thing since they were transplanted, it has hardly been perceptible, either in height or thickness; many of them have had the advantage of a little shade from the tree: in my garden, and those that had the most shade I find look healthier than those that had none, and they throw out more leaves. I have often read and heard of the China Tea plant growing no higher than three feet; their being planted in the sun and their leaves constantly gathered, I think accounts for it. ”

“ The indigenous tea plant of India, which is believed to be the parent stock of Chinese tea plants, is a tree, growing to a height of 20 to 35 feet with a trunk 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and bearing leaves of a lively green, 8 to 9 inches in length and 4 inches in breadth. The leaves are much more delicate in texture than those of Chinese plants, which hardly reach 4 inches in length, and the former contain a larger percentage of the invaluable alkaloid, Theine. ”

“ No Fir trees exist on the route, nor is it probable that they exist on the range in this direction. One of the most interesting plants is a new species of tea, which I believe to be a genuine Thea; it is called Bun Fullup, or jungle tea, by the Assamese, in contra-distinction to the true tea plant, which is called Fullup. This species makes its appearance at an elevation of about 1,000 feet, and is met with as high up as 4,000 feet. It attains the size of a tree of 30 feet in height; it is used only as a medicine. No real tea exists on this route ”

“ If young plants could be procured in China, they might be sent over in a growing state in some of these boxes.
The young Tea-plants in the gardens about London thrive very well in the green-houses in winter, and some bear the open air in summer. The leaves of many of them are from one to three inches long, not without a fine deep verdure; and the young shoots are succulent. It is therefore probable, that in a few years many layers may be procured from them, and the number of plants considerably increased thereby. ”

“ I found the leaves of green Tea as large as those of bohea, and nearly as fibrous; which would lead one to suspect, that the difference does not so much depend upon the age, as upon the other circumstances.
We know that in Europe the soil, culture, and exposure, have great influence on all kinds of vegetables: but the same species of plants differ in the same province, and even in the same district; and in Japan, and particularly along the continent of China, it must be much more considerable, where the air is in some parts very cold, in others moderate, or warm almost to an extreme. ”

“ My experience is that the tea-plant does best in land somewhat low, but not such as water will lie upon or is overflowed. I sow the seed in the fall, as soon as they ripen and drop from the bushes, in drills eighteen inches apart. They come up readily in the spring, and by winter are from three to six inches high. Under the shade of some large tree is usually the place selected for sowing the seed, for if the plants are exposed to the hot sun while young, they invariably die the first summer. When six months old they are ready for transplanting ”

“ The tea plant is a small tree or shrub, with five white petals, or flower-leaves, shaped like those of a rose, having smaller ones of the same figure in the intermediate spaces, and twenty or more filaments or threads. The tree sometimes grows to a moderate height, and is generally bare on the lower part, with a number of small branches growing close together towards the top. ”

“ There have been many theories about pruning Tea bushes, but none, I think, worth much practically, for the simple reason that it is impossible to prune 250,000 plants (the number in a 100-acre garden, at 2,500 to the acre) [25] with the care and system a gardener prunes a favourite fruit tree. The operation must be a coarse one, done by ignorant men, in large numbers at one time, who can in a measure be more or less taught, and the nearer they do right the better: still, really careful and scientific pruning can never be carried out on a Tea plantation. ”

“ Prune so as to cause lateral growth. A Tea plant should never be allowed to exceed, say, 4 feet in height, but the wider it is the better.
Prune off all lower branches tending downwards, [26] for the plant should, if possible, be clean underneath to a height of, say, 6 inches. This clean stem high class plants have naturally, not so the Chinese, or the Chinese cast of hybrid.
Plants should be more or less pruned out in the centre. In the following spring young wood is then formed in the heart of the tree, and it is only young wood and shoots that give leaf. ”

“ P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 200:
"The leaves of the tea-tree furnished the colonists with a substitute for the genuine plant in the early period of the colony, and from their containing a saccharine matter required no sugar."
1830. R. Dawson, `Present State of Australia,' p. 78:
"This boy got some bark from a tree called the tea-tree, which makes excellent torches."
1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 25:
"The tea-tree grows in wet situations . . . ”

“ A Plant very like the Tea flourished at this time on the tides and the very tops of mountains, where the soil consisted of little more than fragments of stone crumbled into a sort of coarse earth by the joint action of the sun and rain. The Chinese call this plant Cha-whaw, or Flower of Tea, on account of the resemblance of one to the other; and because its petals, as well as the entire flowers of the Arabian jessamine, are sometimes mixed among the Teas, in order to increase their fragrance. ”

“ The tea-plant, Thea Sinensis, botanically speaking a close ally of the Camellia is in its natural state a tree which attains to 20 or 30 feet in height. Under cultivation it remains a shrub from three to six feet high. It grows in all tropical and sub-tropical countries, and roughly it takes the labour of one man a day to produce a pound of tea. ”

“ Curiosity and interest would mutually induce the Europeans to make the most diligent enquiries in order to discover the real Tea shrub, or a substitute in some other vegetable most resembling it. Simon Paulli, a celebrated physician and botanist at Copenhagen, was the first who pretended to have discovered the real Tea plant in Europe. ”

“ Le Compte’s Journey through the Empire of China, p. 227. Du Halde’s History of China, Vol. IV. p. 21.
[23] The best Tea grows in a mild temperate climate; the country about Nankin producing better Tea than either Pekin or Canton, between which places it is situated. It has been asserted, that no Tea-plants have yet died in England through excess of cold; but the contrary, I know, has happened. The plant in the Princess Dowager’s garden at Kew flourished under glass windows, with the natural heat of the sun, as now do those at Mile-end, in the possession of the intelligent Botanist J. Gordon. ”

“ The plants were spaced about three to six feet apart, according to whether they were of the Chinese, the hybrid, or the pure indigenous breed, the last being the largest, in its native state developing to the dimensions of a small tree. [Pg 17]
I may as well here at once give a short sketch of the principal features of tea planting and manufacture, which will show what the duties of a planter are, and how various are the occupations and operations embraced. One must necessarily first have labour (coolies) . ”

“ You quicken your pace, and escape again into the open plains and the full moonlight, and through the slender tea-trees catch the gleam of the river, and in the exquisite fineness of the atmosphere hear the soothing sound of its murmur. ”