Tea, tee, a plant whose leaves are used in making a beverage of the same name. The name is also applied to the leaves. The tea plant is a shrub, which in its native state grows from twenty to thirty feet in height, but under cultivation is cut down so that it seldom exceeds six feet and is made to branch freely. The leaves are dark green and from three to five inches long. The flowers resemble a small rose. These and other parts of the plant are shown in the color plate. The native country of the tea plant is not known, but it is found growing wild in Assam, a province of India, and in some portions of Japan. It is now cultivated in nearly all parts of China and Japan and in India and Ceylon. The crop is harvested three times a year, the second harvest yielding tea of the best quality. The leaves are picked by hand, and are placed in baskets which the pickers carry suspended from their necks. The leaves are then spread in the sun and partially dried, after which they are heated over a charcoal fire. They are then placed upon a table and rolled in the hands, during which they attain the form in which they are placed upon the market. After this they are dried, sorted, put into zinc or lead-lined cases and sealed for shipment. The different grades of tea placed upon the market under various names may all be prepared from leaves of the same plant. All of these are divided into two classes, green teas and black teas. In the former the color of the leaf is preserved by a quick drying; in the latter the leaf is allowed to wilt thoroughly before drying, and during the process it turns black. Cheaper grades of green tea are often given their color by being treated with a weak solution of prussic acid or other objectionable substances. Tea is one of the oldest of the non-intoxicating beverages, and, possibly with the exception of coffee, it is the most widely used. It has a mildly stimulating effect and acts especially on the nervous system. A small quantity tends to calm and rest a person, but when taken in strong solutions it produces wakefulness and tends to produce nervous irritability. Strong tea is a valuable antidote for poisoning, by morphine or antimony. See color plate, Coffee.