the tender, flexible, and not brittle leaves, were gathered with the petiole and tip extremity of every bud, and that some water was put with them into the iron pan, in which the negresses twisted, squeezed, broke and shook the masses of foliage.  The operation was, on the whole, more neatly performed than at Rio.  When the tea was perfectly dry and removed from the pan, it was placed aside in a box, shaded from the air and light, and was considered ready for present use, on the spot; but M. Feigo informed me, that when sent to a distance, the cases were hermetically closed, and the tea underwent an extra dessication over the fire.

The plantations belonging to M. Feigo, and surrounding his chagara, are extensive, containing about 20,000 tea shrubs, of fine growth and high vigor, most of them six or eight years old, set in regular lines, a metre asunder from each other, and the lines with a metre and a half between them.  The soil is excellent, argillaceo-ferruginous, as is generally the case near St. Paul.

    In the Botanic Garden at St. Paul, some squares are devoted to the
    growth of tea; but I am not aware that the leaves are ever subject
    to preparation.

M. da Luz had invited us to inspect his tea-grounds near Nossa Senhora da Penha, and I went thither, accompanied by Messrs. Barandier and Houlet.  The cultivation is admirable, the soil excellent, and the tea-plants peculiarly vigorous.  Each shrub was so placed that a man can easily go all round it, and young plants, self-sown, were springing up below every old one; of these offsets, I was made welcome to as many as I could take away, and should have had a great stock, but that the ground had been very recently cleared.  M. da Luz showed me his magazines of prepared tea, which were extensive and well stocked.

Hence I went to the property of a lady, Donna Gertrude Gedioze Larceda, situated at the foot of Jarigur, a mountain famed for its gold mines, and passed two days in exploring this celebrated locality, and then visited the Colonel Anastosio on my way back to St. Paul.  These plantations are in the most prosperous condition, situated on a sloping and well-manured tract behind the habitations.  The shrubs are generally kept low, and frequently cut, so as to, make them branching, by which the process of picking the leaves is rendered easier.  There may be 60,000 or 70,000 plants, but a third of them were only set a year before.  Every arrangement is excellently conducted here; the pans kept very clean, though perhaps rather thin from long use and the fierceness of the fires.  But the general good order that prevails, speaks much in favor of the tea produced in this neighbourhood.  The colonel showed me his warehouse, where the tea is stored in iron jars, narrow-necked and closed by a tight fitting stopper.  I ventured to put some questions to Colonel Anastosio respecting the sale of the produce.  He gave me to understand