does it often carry off? Describe briefly the story of the eagle carrying off a baby to its nest. Where is Ben Nevis? What sometimes happens to the eagle when trying to take a fish out of the water? Where does the eagle make its nest? How many eggs are laid? How do the parent eagles teach their young to fly? What did Sir Humphry Davy once see on Ben Nevis? How did the Greeks regard the eagle? What nations have chosen it for their symbol? What does it symbolize?

1. The tea-plant is a native of China and Japan. It is a small evergreen shrub, much branched, and covered with a rough dark bark. It bears some resemblance to the camellia, which belongs to the same order of plants.

2. The leaves are oval, pointed at the ends, and of a dark green colour. The flowers are white, often two or three together, and placed at the bottom of the leaves.

3. The plant will grow on either low or elevated situations, but always thrives best, and furnishes leaves of the finest quality when produced in light

stony ground. The leaves are gathered from one to four times during the year, according to the age of the tree.

4. Most commonly there are three periods of gathering; the first begins about the middle of April, the second at midsummer, and the last in August or September. The leaves that are earliest gathered are of the most delicate colour, of the most aromatic flavour, and contain the least portion of either fibre or bitterness.

5. The leaves of the second gathering are of a dull green colour, and have less valuable qualities than

the former; whilst those of the last gathering are of a dark colour, and possess an inferior value. The quality of the leaves is also influenced by the age of the tree, and the degrees of exposure to which it has been accustomed. Leaves from young wood and from trees most exposed are always the best.

6. The leaves as soon as they are gathered are put into wide shallow baskets, and exposed to the air

and sunshine for 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 are operated upon at one time.

7. The leaves are stirred quickly about for some time with a kind of brush, and are then swept off into a basket.

8. The next process which the leaves undergo is that of rolling, which is effected by carefully rubbing them between men's hands. They are then placed upon the iron pan, and subjected again to heat, but at a much lower temperature, just sufficient to dry them effectually, without the risk of scorching them.

9. When this process is finished, the leaves are thrown upon a table and carefully picked over.

Every unsightly or imperfectly dried leaf that is detected, is removed from the rest in order that the sample may present a better appearance when offered for sale.

10. With some of the finer sorts of tea a different process is adopted; the heated plates are dispensed with, and the leaves are carefully rolled into balls, leaf by leaf with the hands.

11. There are many varieties of the tea-plant, and in China several sorts of tea are used, mostly named after the districts in which they are grown. In our own country, however, tea is generally divided into two sorts-black and green, which were at one time believed to be obtained from entirely different plants. It is now known, however, that both sorts grow on the same tree, and that the difference in

colour is only the result of two different methods of treating the leaves.

12. In the preparation of green tea, the leaves are roasted almost immediately after they are gathered, and dried as quickly as possible. In black teas, on the contrary, the whole process is retarded, and the leaves are exposed to the air until they become soft and flaccid, when they are finally dried slowly over charcoal fires.

13. The chemical changes induced under these different conditions account for both the difference in colour and in the quality of black and green tea.

14. The people of China partake of tea at all their meals, and frequently at other times of the day. They drink it without either milk or sugar.

15. Formerly all teas imported into Europe were brought from China, but now large supplies are received from our possessions in India. It was thought by many that the tea-plant would thrive on the slopes of the Himalaya Mountains in India, and many thousands of plants were imported from China. These have been so successfully cultivated, that tea of a very superior quality is grown, and commands a high price in the market. Being of a strong description, it is principally bought by merchants for mixing with the low sorts of Chinese teas so as to raise their quality.

16. Two hundred and fifty years ago tea was unknown in Europe. It had been used in China from the earliest ages, and was common enough in India, Persia, and Tartary. It was first brought to Europe by the Dutch, who imported it as a drug; indeed

one of their physicians commended it as a sure cure for many complaints.

17. It was first introduced into England in the year 1664, but its price made it a curiosity. It is recorded that the East India Company paid £2 for two ounces of tea, which they presented to Charles the Second. For some years after 1664, tea was sold for sixty shillings per pound, and for a long time the rich only could afford to buy it.

18. Now its use is almost universal, and more than 80,000,000 lbs. are imported into this country annually. Its importation employs a large capital and numerous shipping, and so important is this article reckoned, that its fall or rise in price is looked upon with anxiety by the poorest individual in the