20 THE LYCHEE AND LUNG AN 



Of the various Chinese treatises on the lychee, that of Ts'ai 

 Hsiang, l A. D. 1059, already quoted, is the earliest and most 

 famous. His work is divided into seven distinct chapters all of which 

 have been translated by Mr. Michael J. Hagerty, of the Office of 

 Crop Physiology and Breeding Investigations of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. In the first of these chapters he treats 

 of the extent of territory over which the lychee is grown and pro- 

 claims his zeal to place this fruit in the position it deserves among 

 the fruits of the world. He had artists draw pictures of the best 

 varieties he had seen and these he classified. In the second chapter 

 he deals with the lychee in his native province, Fukien, and he 

 names one variety, the "Chen family purple lychee " of which he 

 says that though there are a thousand varieties and ten thousand trees, 

 no other one can compare with this. He says of it, "When the 

 Chen family are about to harvest their crop of lychee, they close all 

 their gates or doors and people desiring to purchase the fruit must 

 hand in their money through an aperture in the wall, receiving in 

 return its .equivalent in lychee fruit. For that which the purchaser 

 was able to obtain he was thankful and considered himself lucky, 

 never daring to argue whether the price was too much or too little. " 

 He then deals with the production and export of the lychee a,nd in 

 the fourth chapter he considers its medicinal properties and speaks of 

 the age of the tree and the excellent character of the wood. He 

 does not fail to discuss the important fact of inability of the lychee to 

 withstand cold and to speak of its chief enemies. In the sixth chapter 

 he deals with a few of the many interesting methods of preserving 

 the fruit which the Chinese used in those days and he tells of the 

 custom of sending the best fruit as tribute to the Emperor. In the 

 last chapter he gives a comprehensive list of the varieties produced 

 and discusses them in some detail. 



Sung Chia ($fes) 2 of the Ming Dynasty (9HM), A.D. 

 1368-1627, also wrote a treatise on the lychee in which he quotes 

 Ts'ai Hsiang (US-) and interestingly proclaims his desire to organize 



1 TS'AI HSIANG (Hg), Li Chih P'u (&$fS) in Ku Chin Tu Shu 

 Chi Cheng (#^Iil^|i$), Po Wu Hut Pien (|f 4&X&P, Ts'ao Muh Tien 

 , section 273 (-tf-fc-f-3fc), Li Chih Pu 1 (2fc8R-), pages 1-5 



2 SUNG CHIA (5feH), Li Chih P'u (&3lt9) in Ku Chin Tu Shu Chi 

 Cheng (<**&), PO Wu Hut Pien (ffttgJR), Ts'ao Muh Tien 

 , section 273 (JR-lMrt-S*), Li Chih Pu 1 (#$-), pages 



