The Tea-plant is a native of China and Assam. It is a very handsome shrub resembling a camellia, with dark, glossy, green leaves and beautiful flowers. It is said to have been used in China about 2700 B.C., and the first plantations in India were made with Chinese seed. But a Mr. Bruce reported the presence of an indigenous wild tea in Assam.[57] Three botanists who were sent to investigate the question suggested that this Assam variety was only the Chinese plant run wild, and advised the introduction of Chinese seedlings. This was a very unfortunate mistake, for the wild Assam plant gives much better results. [57] Watt, _Economic Dictionary of the Products of India_. This valuable work of reference should be consulted for interesting details as to all the plants cited in this chapter. The jungle is first cut down and cleared away by the native tribes, with the help of elephants. Then at the right season, i.e. after the rains begin, the Indian women and coolies go into the plantations. They carry on their backs a basket supported by a band across the forehead. These women nip off the first two leaves and a bud with their finger and thumb and throw them into the basket over their shoulders. When the basket is full they take it back to the factory, where their gatherings are weighed. The actual manufacture is, in India and Ceylon, all performed by machinery. The tea is first emptied on to trays in a shallow layer: a pound of tea when so spread out covers more than a square yard. These trays are then placed in a room which is heated to a high temperature, for "withering." After six hours it is passed through a machine which "rolls" or gives a twist to the leaves. It is then "fermented" on cement floors, where the tea is covered by strips of moist muslin. It is again rolled and afterwards dried or "fired." The sifting out of the different sorts or blends, and also the packing of the tea in chests, are done by machinery. That is the Indian system of manufacture, in which there is scarcely any hand-labour. In China the rolling, and indeed every stage of the process, appears to be done by hand. It is obvious that in the handling, pattings, and rollings of the tea by Chinese coolies, "celestial moisture" may be imparted to it. In spite of this, however, the export of Chinese tea is steadily diminishing. In the old days, the Liverpool "tea clippers," fast and beautiful sailing-ships, raced each other home from China in order to get the first tea upon the market. Tea is sometimes dangerous, and especially when it is allowed to stew on the fire for hours at a time. Besides _theine_, which is the stimulating, active part of it, and which is a bracing tonic to the nerves, _tannin_ is also found therein. When meat is taken with a large amount of _tannin_, the latter acts on the meat exactly as it does on hides in a tanning factory. It forms a substance resembling leather, which taxes the powers of the strongest digestion.