This is one of the many fruits of China which one often 

 reads of, but which is seldom indeed seen in Europe, yet 

 said to be eaten to a great extent, and ranking, with the 

 Litchi, among the best fruits of the celestial empire. A 

 fine cluster of this, represented in the Transactions of the 

 Horticultural Society, above quoted, ripened at Lee Castle, 

 Kidderminster, in 1816. For the flower and fruit here 

 represented, I am indebted to Dr. Graham, who sent them 

 from the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, in 1841 ; together 

 with the following account. 



This plant flowered abundantly in the Royal Botanic 

 Garden in May and June, 1841 ; but, though many fruits 

 formed, they all soon dropped off. 



Descr. Trunk erect, branched, bark grey. Leaves scat- 

 tered, abruptly pinnate ; common petiole (nine inches long) 

 swollen at the base, nearly round, slightly scabrous, pale- 

 brown, glaucous at its origin ; pumce (four inches long, one 

 and a half broad) in five pairs, unequal at the base, coria- 

 ceous, pale green, shining and glabrous above, paler and 

 slightly scabrous below ; middle rib and oblique parallel 

 lateral veins prominent below, flat above, reticulation ob- 

 scure. Panicle large, terminal ; rachis and its branches 

 covered with soft, short pubescence. Bracts minute, de- 

 ciduous. Flowers perfumed, shortly pedicellate. Calyx 

 five-partite, covered on both sides as well as the pedicels 

 with pubescence similar to that on the rachis ; segments 

 ovate, concave, undulate. Petals five, about equal to the 

 length of the calyx, spathulate, reflexed between the sepals, 

 pubescent on both sides. Disk large, pubescent, flattened, 

 lobed, covering the origin of the petals. Stamens eight, 

 arising from the upper part of the disk near its centre, 

 rather longer than the calyx ; filaments subulate, spread- 

 ing, slightly hairy ; anthers ovato-oblong, attached by 

 the back, near the base; lobes slightly divaricated at the 

 base ; pollen abundant, granules minute. Pistil pubescent, 

 shorter than the stamens, in many of the flowers abortive 

 early ; germen two to four-lobed, shortly stipitate, attached 

 to the sides of the thickened style, lobes compressed late- 

 rally, rounded on the back, each with one ascending ovule; 

 Stigma two to four-lobed, diverging. Every part of the 

 flower is pale yellow,— the disk the darkest —Graham. 



