316 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



Bonavia says : " The tree does admirably in Lucknow, and should 

 do as well all over the northwestern provinces, but it flourishes 

 best, I believe, in Bengal. Who knows what untold litchi 

 wealth there may be in the fine black soil of the central prov- 

 inces, so centrally situated for fruit trade?" 



In Cochin-China, in Madagascar, and in a few other countries 

 of the East, the tree is cultivated on a limited scale. In Hawaii, 

 where it is believed to have been introduced about 1873, it has 

 succeeded remarkably well, and much attention has lately been 

 given to its commercial cultivation, without, however, any 

 large orchards having been established as yet. 



According to William Harris, it was introduced into Jamaica 

 in 1775, but it is still rare in that island. A tree at Santa Bar- 

 bara, California, which produced a few fruits in 1914, was the 

 first to come into bearing in the United States. While the 

 litchi is believed to have been planted in Florida as early as 

 1886, it was not until 1916 that the first fruits were produced 

 in that state. These were from plants introduced from China 

 in 1906. A few trees have borne in Cuba, Brazil, and other 

 parts of tropical America. 



The common name of this fruit is variously spelled, litchi, 

 lichee, lychee, leechee, lichi, laichi, and so on. Yule and Burnell 

 state that the pronunciation in northern China is lee-chee, 

 while in the southern part of the country it is ly-chee. Since 

 the form litchi has been fixed as a part of the botanical name of 

 the species, and since it is employed extensively as the common 

 name, it may be well to retain it in preference to others. The 

 pronunciation ly-chee, which is used in the region where the 

 fruit is grown, is generally preferred to leechee. Botanically 

 the plant is Litchi chinensis, Sonn. Nephelium Litchi, Cambess., 

 is a synonym. 



While the litchi is probably best as a fresh fruit, Frank N. 

 Meyer says that it is considered by some to be more delicious 

 when preserved (canned) than when fresh; and he adds : "No 



