Tea thrives best in light friable soils of good depth, through which water percolates freely, the plant being specially impatient of marshy situations and stagnant water.
There is an abundant rainfall, but owing to the porous nature of the soil the water percolates into deep caves which have communication with the sea, and becomes brackish.
The first is an arid desert absolutely barren along part of the coast, between Tacna and Copiapo, but with a coarse scanty vegetation near the Cordilleras along watercourses and on the slopes where moisture from the melting snows above percolates through the sand.
In the case of cold extraction the seed is placed in a series of closed vessels, through which the solvent percolates by displacement, on the "counter-current" system.
When it rains, water percolates through the patio and boxes beneath and is trapped by the membrane.