7. The leaves are gathered from one to four times during the year, according to the age of the tree. Most commonly there are three periods of gathering; the first commences about the middle of April; the second at midsummer; and the last is accomplished during August and September.

8. The leaves that are earliest gathered, are of the most delicate color and most aromatic flavor, with the least portion of either fiber or bitterness. The leaves of the second gathering are of a dull green color, and have less valuable qualities than the former; while those that are last collected are of a dark green, and possess an inferior value.

9. The quality is further influenced by the age of the wood on which the leaves are borne, and by the degree of exposure to which they have been accustomed; leaves from young wood, and those most exposed, being always the best.

10. The leaves, as soon as gathered, are put into wide, shallow baskets, and placed in the air or wind, or sunshine, during some hours. They are then placed on a flat cast-iron pan, over a stove heated with charcoal; from a half to three quarters of a pound of leaves being operated on at one time. The leaves are stirred quickly about with a kind of brush, and are then quickly swept off the pan into baskets.

11. The next process is that of rolling, which is effected by carefully rubbing them between men's hands; after which they are again put, in larger quantities, on the pan, and subjected anew to heat, but at this time to a lower degree than at first, and just sufficient to dry them effectually, without the risk of scorching.

12. This effected, the tea is placed upon a table, and carefully picked over, every unsightly or imperfectly dried leaf that is detected being removed from the rest, in order that the sample may present a more even, and a better appearance when offered for sale. With some finer sorts of tea a different manipulation is employed; the heated plates are dispensed

with, and the leaves are carefully rolled into balls, leaf by leaf, with the hands.

13. The names by which the principal sorts of tea are known in China, are taken from the places in which they are produced; while others are distinguished according to the periods of their gathering, the manner employed in curing, or other intrinsic circumstances. The tea-plant has not been naturalized in this country or in England, not being capable of enduring a full exposure to the cold of our winter.

QUESTIONS. 1. Where is the tea-plant indigenous? 1. What is Japan? 1. Who was Confucius? 1. What did he believe and teach? 2. What is the Chinese Empire? 3. To what are the differences in tea owing? 4. How do the Chinese propagate the tea-plant? 7. How often are the leaves gathered? 8. Which leaves are best? 10. How are they prepared for market? 13. From what do the different kinds of tea derive their names?

6. Pre-dom'in-ant, prevalent over others. 15. Ter'ra-ces, raised level spaces.

6. Lute, a musical instrument.

16. Em-bel'lish-ed, adorned.

ERRORS.-6. An'cient for ăn'cient; 6. pas'trals for pas'to-rals; 9. sac-ri-ligʻious for sac-ri-le'gious; 11. a-gayn' for a-gain'; 12. milds for miles; 17. pop'e-lous for pop'u-lous; 17. teoun for town.

THE ENGLISH PARKS.

1. THE English parks abound with trees of extraordinary age and size. They are not like the trees of our original forests, growing up to a great height, and on account of their proximity to each other, having but few branches, but they are much shorter, throwing out their branches laterally to a great distance, and thus affording an extensive and delightful shade.

a

2. I measured one in Lord Bagot's celebrated park in Staffordshire, and going round the outside of the branches keeping within the droppings of the circuit, the distance was a hundred yards.

3. The gigantic size of some of the celebrated oaks in the park of the Duke of Portland," which we measured, when he did me the kindness to accompany me through his grounds, seems worthy of notice. The oak denominated the little Porter oak, measured twenty-seven feet in circumference; the great Porter oak is twenty-nine feet in circumference; and the Seven Sisters, thirty-three feet in circumference.

4. The great Porter oak was of very large diameter, even fifty feet above the ground; and an opening in the Green Dale oak, at one time, was large enough to admit the passage of a small carriage through it, but by advancing years the space has become somewhat contracted.

5. These, indeed, are noble trees, though it must be confessed that they were thrown quite into the shade by the magnificent Kentucky button-wood or sycamore, of whose trunk I saw a complete section exhibited at Derby, measuring twenty-five feet in diameter, and seventy-five feet in circumference. This was brought from the United States, and indeed might well be denominated the mammoth of the forest.

6. In these ancient parks, oaks and beeches are the predominant trees, with occasional chestnuts and ashes. In very many cases I saw the beauty and force of that first line in the pastorals of Virgil, in which he addresses Tityrus' as "playing

NOTES. - a Staffordshire; a county in the west of England. b Part'land; a peninsula in the county of Dorsitshire, England. Der'by; a town in the central part of Eng. land. d United States; a federative republic, occupying the middle division of North America. e Virgil; a very distinguished Roman poet, born at Andes, now Peteole, near Mantua, 70 years before Christ. He was modest in his appearance, and of a mild and gentle disposition. The Eneid is his most distinguished work. fTit' y-rus; a fictitious name of a shepherd mentioned in the first eclogue of Virgil; it is supposed to represent the poet himself.

his lute in the shade of a wide spreading beech." These trees are looked upon with great veneration.

7. In many cases they are numbered; in some a label is affixed to them, giving their age; sometimes a stone monument is erected, saying when or by whom this forest or this clump was planted; and commonly some family record is kept of them, as a part of the family history.

8. I respect this trait in the character of the English, and I sympathize with them in their veneration for ancient trees. They are often the growth of centuries, and the monuments of years gone by.

9. I cannot quite enter into the enthusiasm of an excellent friend, who used to say that cutting down an old tree ought to be made a capital offence at law, yet I deem it almost sacrilegious to destroy them, excepting where necessity demands it; and I would always advise that an old tree, standing in a conspicuous station either for use or amusement, should be, at least, once more wintered and summered, before the sentence of death, which may be passed upon it, is carried into execution.

10. The trees in the park of the palace of Hampton court," are many of them, especially the horse chestnut and lime, of surpassing beauty; several straight lines of them forming, for a long distance, the entrance to the palace. On a clear bright day, at the season of their flowering, I passed through this magnificent avenue of trees with inexpressible delight.

11. I passed through them again late in the autumn, when the frost had marred their beauty, and the autumnal gales had stripped off their leaves; but they were still venerable in the simple majesty of their gigantic and spreading forms. I could

NOTE.a Hampton court; a royal residence on the northern bank of the Thames, about thirteen miles from London. It was erected by Cardinal Wolsey, who lived there in royal magnificence.

not help reflecting, with grateful emotions, on that beneficent Power, which would presently breathe upon these apparently lifeless statues, and clothe them with the glittering foliage of spring, and the rich and splendent glories of summer.

12. The extent of these parks, in many cases, filled me with surprise. They embraced hundreds, and in some instances, thousands of acres. You enter them by gates, where a porter's lodge is always to be found. After entering the park gates, I have rode sometimes several miles before reaching the house.

13. They are generally devoted to the pasturage of sheep, cattle, or deer. In the park at Chatsworth the herd of deer exceeds sixteen hundred. These deer are kept at no inconsiderable expense, requiring abundant pasturage in summer, and hay and grain in winter. English pastures are seldom or never plowed, and many of them have been in grass beyond the memory of any one living.

14. In speaking of the parks in the country, I ought not to pass, in silence, over the magnificent parks also in London," including St. James's park, Green park, Kensington gardens, Hyde park, and Regent's park.

15. Kensington gardens, exclusive of private gardens, contains, within its enclosure, two hundred and twenty-seven acres; Hyde park, three hundred and eighty acres; Green park, connected with St. James's park, fifty-six acres; St. James's park, eighty-seven acres; and terraces connected with Regent's park, eighty acres ;-making a grand total of one thousand two hundred and two acres.

16. To these should be added the large, elegant, and highly embellished public squares in various parts of London,

NOTES. -a Chatsworth; a village in the peak of Derbyshire, England, where Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned. b See London, p. 87, note a. с © Ken'sington gar'dens; formerly a favorite royal residence, where King William III., Queen Mary, Queen Anne, and George II. died.