INTRODUCTION 



Chinese poets have sung praises to the lychee for centuries 

 while Chinese writers have written of the value of the lychee and 

 lungan in the home, in medicine and in commerce. In times past 

 good Chinese officials have encouraged the cultivation of these fruits 

 by protecting the parent trees of choice varieties, by disseminating 

 information regarding cultural methods and by encouraging Chinese 

 writers to make careful descriptions of the best varieties. Bad officials 

 have greatly discouraged these important fruit industries by the custom, 

 formerly so rampant in China, of imposing tribute upon the grow- 

 ers. The importance of the lychee in the eyes of the Chinese is 

 evinced by the fact that there are no less than nine treatises on the ly- 

 chee by famous authors, beginning with that of Ts'ai Hsiang (H)' 

 in A. D. 1059 and extending to that of Wu Ying K'uei (&ll^) 2 in 

 1826. The latter author has written most interestingly of the origin 

 of the name lychee. 



Travellers to China from the earliest times have reported the 

 merits of the lychee and have encouraged its introduction into Europe 

 and the United States. But like many things of Chinese origin, this 

 important fruit is practically unknown on the Western Hemisphere. 

 Such a well known authority as Dr. Augustine Henry, who knows 

 well both European and Oriental fruits, has privately written with 

 regard to the lychee, *' It is one of the very finest fruits in the world, 

 not excepting the apple and the pear. ' ' A Portuguese writer 3 does not 

 hesitate to say of the lychee, "It is the most tasty and beautiful fruit 

 that God has created in the Universe." In fact the lychee has for 

 many years been a favorite subject of foreign writers but their treatment 

 has usually been as brief as their access to knowledge regarding it. 

 One very recent writer 4 tersely remarks in a three hundred word article, 

 " One of the daintiest packages that have ever been wrapped by Nat- 

 ure's hand is the little spherical litchi fruit. No one, whether he is a 



1 TS'AI HSIANG Igg), Li Chih P'u ("# 18 ) in Ku Chin Tu 

 Shu Chi Cheng (^TtBffgjft), Po H-'u Hui Pien (ft ft g ft), TSao Muh 

 Tien (& * ft), Action 273 (- IT -fc + 2 *), U Chi Pu 1 (& & ffi ~) 

 pages 1-5 (m~ 



2 WU YING K'URI (^ m m Ling Nan Lt Chih Pu 

 in LitiR -Nan I Shu (Stf^&'S), book 59 (^2L-HL#) and in six sections 



? MONTEIBO DE CARVALHO, JoSE, Diccionarit fi'jrti'gueSK. daf plantus* 

 arhustos, page 316. 



4 WALKER, ROBERT SPARKS, in The Girdr to Nature, v.l. MI, NO. 



3, p:if 34. 



