EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 



Pehr Osbeck 1 , .Rector of Hasloef and \Vo\torp, Member -of 

 the Academy of Stockholm and of the Society of Upsala, in his 

 Voyage to China and 1ln Kasi' India;, interestingly reported -in 

 1757 a certain thrilling experience in his search for plants in which 

 be says, ''Near this place was a garden, but neither entreaties nor 



money could procure me an entrance We went to the house 



where the surveyor of it lived. Here was a little gilt figure, on an 

 altar, which was one of the lares of the Chinese. We were \vell 

 received in his room; and he immediately ordered a dish of tea 

 without sugar, and a tobacoo-pipe to he given us but did not desire 

 us to sit down. We were afterwards presented with two sorts of 

 fruit, which in their language are called La-tyce and " Lonyan." 

 These Osbeck has described in another place as a fruit which is 

 eaten with tea, tasting almost like a sort of our plums and covered 

 with a brownish, thin and warty skin, in appearance something like 

 i^all apples. As translated in English he says, *' Lang-an is less than 

 lat-yee; they have a smooth skin, and sweet pulp, as in the lat-yee." 



The first modern botanical name, Litclii Chintnsis, was 

 given by Pierre Sonnerat 2 , Commissioner of Marine and Naturalist 

 under royal pension, Correspondent of the Royal Household, arid 

 Member of the Royal Societies of Paris and Lyons, in his publication 

 of 1782. Sonnerat gives a careful and complete description of the 

 lychee and says. * 4 Its fruit is very agreeable and one of the best in 

 the country. \Y T hen it is ripe it is of a russet or reddish color. The 

 Chinese dry it in an oven to keep it and thus prepared it becomes an 

 object of commerce. The Longan of China should be included in 

 the same genus." 



Grosier's * very comprehensive General Description of 

 China translated from the French into English and published in 

 1795, contains the following interesting but somewhat questionable 



1 Osbeck, Prter, A Voyage to China and the East Indies London, 



B. White, 1771, pages 308, 326 and 327. 



2 Sonnerat, Pierre, Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine 2 



volumes and plates, Paris, L'auteur, 1,782, Tome second, page 23(1 and 

 plate 129. 



* Grosier, Jean Buptiste Gabriel Aiexandre, A general description of 

 China: containing the topography of the fifteen provinces which comprise 

 this vast empire; that of Tartary, the isles, and other tributary countries. 

 The- second edition, transited from the French of the Abbe Grosier. 



London. (J. (}. and 1. Robinson. 1795. Vol. 1, patrc 426 and 427. 



