In the Andaman Islands, tea cultivation pro mises BUCCCBS. On the 14 acres of tea which were under cultivation one season, the out-turn has been 411 lbs. to the acre for the twelve months.
History.—No mention of tea-drinking was made by Marco Polo. Suliman, an Arabian merchant, who wrote an account of his travels in the east about the year A.D. 850, is quoted by Macpherson in his History of European Commerce with India, as stating that tea (sah) is the usual beverage of the Chinese ; yet no other mention of the custom has been met with prior to the Jesuit missions to China and Japan, a little before the middle of the 16th century. Botero is quoted as speaking of it in 1590; Texeira, a Portuguese, about the year 1600, saw the dried leaves of tea at Malacca ; and Olearius in 1638 found it in use among the Per sians, who obtained the leaves from China through the medium of the Uzbak traders. Tea seems to have been first introduced into Europe by the Dutch East India Company, and to have found its way into London from Amsterdam. Tea, coffee, and chocolate are all mentioned together in an Act of Parliament of 1660, wherein a duty of 8d. is charged upon every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, and tea made for sale. How great a novelty it was is shown by Pepys' well-known entry, 25th September 1661 I sent for a cup of tea (a Chinese drink), of which I had never drank before.' It long conthined to be imported in stnall quantities only, the East India Company having purchased in 1664, for presentation to the king, 2 lbs. 2 oz. of tea. In 1678 they imported 4713 lbs. of tea, it being then for the first time thought worth their attention as an article of trade.
In the six following years the entire imports amounted to no more than 410 lbs. According to Milburn's Oriental Commerce, the consumption in 1711 was 141,995 lbs.; 120,595 lbs. in 1715; and 237,901 lbs. in 1720. In 1745 the amount was 730,729 lbs. For above a century and a half, the sole object of the English East India Company's trade with China was to provide tea for consump tion in the United Kingdom. The Company had the exclusive trade, and were bound to send orders for tea, and to provide ships to import the same, and always to have a year's consumption in their warehouses. The teas were disposed of in London, -where only they could be imported, at quarterly sales. In 1740, 1,493,695 lbs. of tea were retained for home consuniption. Two years afterwards, the quantity,fell to 473,868 lbs., and in 1767 only 215,019 lbs. were retained. Next year the amount increased to 3,155,417 lbs. ; in 1769 it was 9,114,854 lbs. ; in 1790, 21,342,845 lbs ; in 1836, ._49 842,236 lbs.
Att,of Parliament in 1834 threw open the trade to China, and the imports into Britain of tea during the years 1838, 1852, and 1882 were as follows— Horne Years. Black. Green. TotaL Consumption.
lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs.
1838, 26,786,000 8,215,000 35,001,000 36,415,000 1852, 55,525,000 9,175,000 64,700,000 54,724,000 1882, ... 211,080,362 165,079,881 Varieties. — In European commerce, various kinds are known, as Black Tea, Bohea, Brick Tea, Congou, Green Tea, Gunpowder Tea, Imperial Gunpowder, Hyson, Pukli Hyson, Hyson Skin, Pekoe, Pekoe-Souchong, Flowery Pekoe, Seentei Pekoe, Pouchong, and Souchong.
The Chinese names given to the various sorts of tea are derived for the most part from their appearance or place of growth, but the names of many of the best kinds are not commonly known abroad. Bohea is the name of the "Wu-i Hills (or Bug, as the people on the spor call them), where the tea is grown, and is not a term for a particular sort among the Chinese, though it is applied to a very poor kind of black tea at Canton; Sunglo, likewise, is a general term for the green teas pro duced on the hills in Kiang-su. The names of the principal varieties of black tea are as follows :— Pekoe or Pecco, white hairs,' so called from the whitish down on the young leaves, is one of the choicest kinds, and has a peculiar taste ; Orange Pecco, called shang - hiang, or most fragrant,' differs from it slightly ; Hung2nuey, red plum blossoms,' has a slightly reddish tinge ; and the terms, prince's eyebrows, carnation hair, lotus kernel, sparrow's tongue, fir-leaf pattern, dragon's pellet, and dragon's whiskers, are all translations of the native names of different kinds of souchong or pecco. .Souchong or Sian-chung means little plant or sort, as Pouchong, or folded sort, refers to the mode of packing it ; Canipoi is corrupted from kan-pei, i.e. carefully fired ; Chulan is the tea scented with the chulan flower, and applied to some kinds of scented green tea. The names of green teas are less numerous :—Gunpowder or Ma chu, i.e. hemp pearl, derives its name from the form into which the leaves are rolled ; Ta-chu, or great pearl,' and Chuktn, or pearl flower,' denote two kinds of imperial ; Hyson or Yu-tsien, Le. before the rains, originally denoted the ten derest leaves of the plant, and is now applied to the young hyson; as also another name, Mei-pien, or plum petals ;' while Hi -chun, flourishing spring,' describes hyson ; Twankay, or beacon brook,' is the name of a stream in Che - kiang, where this sort is produced ; and Hyson skin or Pi-cha, i.e. skin tea, is the poorest kind, the siftings of the other varieties; Oolung, black dragon,' is a kind of black tea with green flavour. Ankoi teas are produced in the district of Nganki, not far from Tsmen-chan-fu, possessing a peculiar taste, supposed to be owing to the ferruginous nature of the soil. De Guignes speaks of the Puirh tea, from the place in Kiang-su where it grows, and says it is cured from wild plants found there ; the infusion is unpleasant, and used for medical purposes. Congo is a corruption of Kung - fu, signifying labour ; and the Moning Congo is so called from being grown in the dis trict named from the city of Mining, meaning Military Rest. Chulan tea, mentioned above, is brought from Foli-kien ; it is scented with the Aglaia flowers, and answers to the scented caper of foreign markets. In the tea shops of China, Lung-cbing, Tsiob-sheh, and Yai-chai are names of good teas in high repute.