_Strawberry-leaf Tea_—obtained from the leaves of the common strawberry shrub, carefully dried and cured after the manner of the China plant. They are prepared and used in Germany particularly as a tea; they yield a very close imitation of the liquor and flavor of the regular tea of commerce, so much so that quite an industry has sprung up in their cultivation and preparation as a substitute for tea in that country. The celebrated “Faham tea” of the Mauritius being still another remarkable substitute for the tea of China. But as with many of the foregoing should be regarded in the light of medicine rather than that of a regular beverage. That this characteristic element _Theine_ should be present not only in the Tea-plant of China and Coffee-plant of Arabia, but also in so many others widely differing, so remote in situation, and so unlike in appearance, and from which millions of people in all parts of the world draw a refreshing and exhilarating beverage, is a striking and beautiful fact in nature. _Under such a fact there may be more significance than science has yet elicited._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IV. CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION. -------------- The Chinese, from time immemorial, have been accustomed to raising their tea on every available space of ground; on barren hill-side, marshy plain and other patches of land unsuited for other purposes. Most of the gardens are, however, situated in hilly districts, but in almost all of them the soil is poor and sandy, varying considerably, even in districts alike famous for the perfect growth of the plant. The soil of the gardens situated on the hills is composed chiefly of a brownish clay, containing large proportions of vegetable matter intermixed with fragments of slate, quartz and sand-stone, held together by a calcareous basis of granite. A soil, in fact, very similar to that which produces pine and scrub-oak, while on the plains it is darker, but containing a still greater proportion of vegetable matter, enriched by sewerage but invariably well underdrained by natural declivities. Yet while many of the gardens are situated on the tops of mountains, among pine trees in some districts, and along river banks on others, the Chinese, as a rule, prefer ground that is only moderately elevated, in sunny sites, everything else being favorable. Many of the latter yield more abundantly, but the product of the former is invariably the finest in quality.