ntations about two days' journey distant from Rio, in different
directions, I hired a lodging at St. Theresa, sufficiently
contiguous to all the establishments I meant to visit, and further
recommended by having a small garden attached to the house, where I
could deposit the growing plants of tea, and sow seeds. During the
month of November, except when hindered by slight indispositions
incidental to the Brazilian climate, I pursued my researches, and
principally in the charming valleys of the Tijuka and Gavia
mountains. There, together with coffee, their principal product, the
most valuable plants of the equatorial region are cultivated.

In the middle of November I had an opportunity of observing the
method pursued when culling the tea, which is performed by black
slaves, chiefly women and children. They carefully selected the
tenderest and pale-green leaves, nipping off with their nails the
young leaf bud, just below where the first or second leaf was
unfolded. One whole field had already undergone this operation;
nothing but tea shrubs stripped of their foliage remained. The
inspector assured me that the plant received no injury from this
process, and that the harvest of leaves was to become permanent by
carefully regulating it, so that the foliage should have grown again
on the first stripped shrubs at the period when the leaves of the
last plant were pulled off. About 12,000 tea shrubs are grown in
this garden: they are regularly planted in quincunxes, and stand
about one metre distant from each other; the greater number are
stunted and shabby looking, probably owing to the aspect of the
ground, which _lies low, on the level of the sea, and exposed to the
full rays of a burning sun_; perhaps the quality of the soil may
have something to do with it, though this is apparently similar to
what prevails in the province of Rio Janeiro. This soil, which is
highly argillaceous, and strongly tinged with tritoxyde of iron, is
formed by the decomposition of gneiss or granite rocks. The flat
situation of this tea ground is unfavorable to the improvement of
the soil, for the heavy rains which wash away the superfluous sand
from slanting situations, of course only consolidate more strongly
the remaining component parts, where the land lies perfectly level,
and thus the tea plants suffer from