There are various kinds of tea, they are now generally allowed to be the product of the same plant, differing only in colour and fragrance, according to the difference of soil, the time of gathering, and the method of prepa

ration.

'The green tea chiefly differs from the black, by its being gathered six or seven weeks sooner, when the plant is in full bloom, and the leaves full of juice; whereas the other, by being left longer on the tree, loses a great part of its juice, and contracts a different colour, taste, and virtue. The green tea, is gathered the beginning of March; and the black in May or June. During all the months of gathering, the leaves on the top of the shrub are the finest and dearest, and are gradually coarser towards the bottom of the plant. The black is first dried in the shade, and afterwards exposed to the heat of the sun; the green is dried in the sun as soon as gathered'; and both are afterwards shrivelled up in earthen pans over a slow fire.

It is very rare to find tea perfectly pure; the Chinese themselves generally mixing other leaves with it to increase the quantity; though the price among them is usually threepence a pound, and never exceeds ninepence.

Bohea tea, if good, is all of a dark colour, crisp and dry, and has a fine smell; green tea s also to be chosen by its crispness, fragrancy,

and light colour, with a bluish csst; for it is not good, if any of the leaves appear dark or brown.

Tea was introduced into Europe in the year 1610, by the Dutch East India company. In 1666 it was sold in London at sixty shillings a pound.

-000

The Sugar Cane.

THE mountains of Jamaica are in general crowned with trees of a thousand different species, ever verdant, forming beautiful groves and cool retreats. The valleys also are gene. rally verdant, being refreshed with many streams, and adorned with plantations of choice and valuable plants, particularly the sugar

cane.

The reed or cane which yields us such an agreeable juice, is like the reeds we generally see in morasses and on the edges of lakes, except that the skin of these latter is hard and dry, and their pith void of juice, whereas the skin of the sugar cane is soft, and the pith very juicy, though in a greater or less degree, ac cording to the goodness of the soil, its exposure to the sun, the season it is cut in, and its age; which circumstances contribute equally to its goodness and its bulk. The sugar cane usually grows to the height of six or seven feet, sometimes higher, exclusive of the long green

tufted leaves at top, from the middle of which, rise the flower and the seed. The stem or stalk is divided by knots or joints, whence like wise shoot out leaves, but these usually fall as the cane rises; and it is a sign that the cane is not good, or that it is far from its maturity, when the knots are beset with leaves. The cane is yellowish when ripe, and about an inch in diameter.

When the canes are ripe, they are cut up, one at a time, with a proper instrument, being too large to be mowed by a scythe. The canes are then bundled up into faggots, and carried to the mills, which are very curious machines, contrived to bruise them, and press out the liquor or juice they contain. These mills are composed of three wooden rollers, covered with plates of iron, and are of four kinds, being turned either by men, water, wind, or cattle.

The juice pressed from the canes is conveyed by a leaden canal into the sugar-house, where A it passess successively into a number of coppers or caldrons, heated by different degrees of fire, ' by which process, the juice of the cane is pu rified, thickened, and rendered fit to be converted to any of the kinds of sugar.

In New England and Canada, a sort of sugar is obtained from the juice of the maple tree, by boiling it. A good tree will yield twenty gal. lons of juice; and this sugar is said to exceed that of the cane in its medicinal virtues. —Su- .

gar has also been made in large quantities in Prussia and France, from an extract of beetroot.

000

Of the Lion.

It is certain, that in those countries which Tipns chiefly inhabit, their numbers were vastly greater in former times, than they are at present. It is hardly to be conceived how, otherwise the Romans were able to procure the prodigious number of these animals, which from time to time they exhibited in their public shows. Sylla, a Roman Governor, had a hundred lions, all males, to fight at the same time; Pompey afterwards, six hundred, (of which three hundred and fifty were males,) and Cæsar four hundred. This great supply of lions afforded good opportunities for taming and domesticating some of the species; and in consequence, their education carried to such a perfection, as to be truly astonishing.

was

.Hanno, a Carthaginian, was the first who tamed a lion; and he was condemned to death, for what his fellow-citizens considered so great a crime; they asserting, that the republic had to fear the worst consequences from a man who had been able to subdue so much ferocity. A little more experience, however, convinced them of the fallacy of that ridicul

lous judgment.

The triumvir Antony, was publicly drawn by lions in a chariot.

It is not wonderful that the ancients, who saw so much of these animals, should, in many respects, have been better acquainted with them than we are: and that many facts which now astonish us, did not escape their observation. Such, among others, is the facility with which a lion, in captivity, will attach himself to companions, even though of a different species. A Greek writer on Natural History, informs us, that a lion, a dog, and a bear, lived together in the greatest familiarity. The attachment between the first two, was even tender. The dog, in one of his frolics, having by accident, bitten the bear, the natural ferocity of that animal returned, and he tore the offender to pieces; but the lion revenged the death of his favourite, by immediately destroying the bear.

It is not yet agreed, to what age the lion will live. Buffon believes the natural duration of his life to be rather more than twentyfive years; but in the tower of London, lions have been kept, which were known to be between sixty and seventy years old.

The keepers of the animals in the tower, and at Exeter Change, London, assert, that no person can with safety approach the lions while they are eating. Instances, however, have occurred, in which dogs kept in the same den