An Article on the Lychee and its Relatives - Being Fruits of the Sapindaceae Family Found in the Tropics

By Wilson Popenoe

This volume contains an vintage article on the lychee, with information on growing, harvesting, problems, and other related species and varieties. Illustrated and containing a complete description of the lychee, this volume will appeal to those with an interest in horticulture, and is not to be missed by the discerning collector. Contents include: “The Litchi”, “Cultivation”, “Propagation”, “Yield and Season”, “Pests and Diseases”, “Varieties”, “The Longan”, The Rambutan”, “The Pulasan”, “The Akee”, and “The Mamoncillo”. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on growing fruit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473354760

Book preview

RELATIVES

THE LITCHI AND ITS RELATIVES

THE Sapindaceæ or Soapberry family comprises a number of fruits prized in the tropics, which may be brought together in one chapter. In temperate climates the family yields no important edible fruits. Some botanists place the maples and buckeyes in this family, but these plants are now commonly separated in other closely related families.

THE LITCHI (Plate XVII, Fig. 42)

(Litchi chinensis, Sonn.)

While living in exile at Canton, the poet Su Tung-po declared that litchis would reconcile one to eternal banishment. Yet he did not allow his enthusiasm to draw him into gastronomic indiscretions, for he limited himself to a modest three hundred a day, while other men (so he says) did not stop short of a thousand.

Chang Chow-ling, an illustrious statesman of the eighth century of our era, composed a poem on the litchi in which he praised it as the most luscious of all fruits. Modern Chinese critics fully concur in this opinion. Neither the orange nor the peach, two of the finest fruits of southern China, is held to equal it in