CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

TEA

Description. The Tea Shrub has a woody spreading root, several slender branches, with numerous oblong leaves, like those of the cherry tree, flowers like those of the dog-rose and a fruit composed of one, two, and for the most part, three berries. Only one species of the Tea plant is as yet known: the differences in this commodity, as brought to us, proceeding from a difference in the climate, soil, age, method of collectin, and curation. The preparations of the leaves consists in drying or roasting them over the fire in an iron pan, ad rolling them, while hot, with the palm of the hand on a mat, till they become curled, it is then put up in chests of tin and lead, to be preserved from the air.

Place. It is a native of China and Japan, and is cultivated in all the eastern parts.

Virtues. Tea, at present, is more used for pleasure than as a medicine. Green Tea, however, is diureic, and carries an agreeable roughness with it into the stomach, which gently astringes the fibres of that organ, and gives such a tone as is necessary for a good digestion: the Bohea is softening and nutritious, and proper in all inward decays. Strong tea, however, is prejudicial for weak nerves, and especially for children; but at times, is very salutary for violent head-achs and sicknesses by inebriation.