PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SEEDS. 315 



covered with a fleshy excrescence, very sweet and scented, 

 which is eaten with tea. 



Like most of the SapindacecB, the nepheliums are 

 trees. This one has been cultivated in the south of China, 

 India, and the Malay Archipelago from a date of w^hich 

 we cannot be certain. Chinese authors living at Pekin 

 only knew the Litchi late in the third century of our 

 era.^ Its introduction into Bengal took place at the end 

 of the eighteenth century.^ Every one admits that the 

 species is a native of the south of China, and, Blume ^ 

 adds, of Cochin-China and the Philippine Isles, but it does 

 not seem that any botanist has found it in a truly wild 

 state. This is probably because the southern part of 

 China towards Siam has been little visited. In Cochin- 

 China and in Burmah and. at Chittagong the Litchi is 

 only cultivated.* 



Longan — NepTieliwin longana, Cambessides. 



This second species, very often cultivated in Southern 

 Asia, like the Litchi, is wild in British India, from Ceylon 

 and Concan as far as the mountains to the east of 

 Bengal, and in PegTi.^ The Chinese introduced it into 

 the Malay Ai'chipelago some centuries ago. 



Rambutan — NeiDheliumfi Ictiopacewm, Linnaeus, 



It is said to be wild in the Indian Archipelago, where 

 it must have been long cultivated, to judge from the 

 number of its varieties. A Malay name, given by Blume, 

 signifies wild tree. Loureiro says it is wild in Cochin- 

 China and Java. Yet I find no confirmation for Cochin- 

 China in modern works, nor even for the islands. The 

 new flora of British India ^ indicates it at Singapore and 

 Malacca without afiirming that it is indigenous, on which 

 head the labels in herbaria commonly tell us nothing. 

 Certainly the species is not wild on the continent of 

 Asia, in spite of the vague expressions of Blume and 



^ Bretschneider, letter of Aug. 23, 1881. 



2 Eoxburgli, Fl. Indica, ii. p. 269. ' Blume, Eum'phia, iii. p. 106. 



* Loureiro, Flora Coch., p. 233 ; Kurz, Forest Fl. of Brit. Burmah, 

 p. 293. 



^ Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ii. p. 271 ; Thwaites, Enum. Zeyl., p. 58 ; Hiern,. 

 in Fl. of Brit. Ind., i. p. 688. 



« Hiern, in Fl. of Brit. Ind., i. p. 687. 



