BOTANY OF FOUR IMl'JKT.VNT SAPJNDACEOUS FRUITS 



some of which bear edible fruit. The lyclue and the liutyan are 

 the two most important sub-tropical forms and the ra nth titan and 

 the pulassan are the two most highly developed tropical species. 

 Formerly these four were usually grouped in the genus Ncpliclium 

 with the names A', lilchi, N. lonyann. .V. luppar.i H//tand/V. mutabilc 

 respectively. George I)on (1831-1838) x , Miquel (1855-1859) 2 

 Hooker (1875) 5 , and Kurz (1877) 4 give excellent outlines of 

 X'tpheliuni under which they list the lychee and the lungan. 

 Baillon 5 in his work published in 1878, divides the Sapindaccac 

 into eight series with 74 genera. His third series, tiapindeac, with 

 40 genera includes the plants of this study. Recent botanists have 

 placed the lychee and the lungan, according to characters which 

 readily separate them from the rambutan and the pulassan and from 

 each other, in the two separate genera Litcki and Euphoria. They 

 continue to group the rambutan and the pulassan under Ncph.diiim. 

 Radlkofer 6 who has given the group the latest and best study has 

 also followed this treatment. 



It is fortunate that this family of plants has been the life-long 

 study of the botanist, Ludwig Radlkofer, to whom we now look as 

 the authority on the relationships of the lychee and the lungan. It 

 is difficult to over-estimate the value ofthe kind of knowledge such as 

 Radlkofer has collected and recorded in his numerous writings on the 

 Sapindaccae. In experimenting with stocks on which to graft the 

 lychee and also in hybridizing work, such knowledge is absolutely 

 indispensable. As a result of Radlkofer' s careful investigations, the 

 relationships of the lychee and the lungan to the other members of 



1 Don, George, A general history of the dicJilamvdous plants. Jn fom 

 volumes. London, }. (}. and F. Rivington. 1831. Vol. I, pages 654, 655, 

 670 and 671. 



2 Miquel, Frieclrich Anton Wilhelm, Flora van Ncderlandsrh. Indie, 

 Amsterdam, C. G. van der Post, 1859, pages 554, 555, 556 and 557. 



1 Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton, Flora of British India. London, L. Reeve 

 & Co., 1875/7 vol. Vol. 1 pages 686, 687, 688, 689 and 690. 



Kurz, Sulpiz, rorsst flora of British Burma. Calcutta, Office of the 

 superintendent of government printing, 1877. "2 volumes. Vol. 1, papes 

 2D2-293 and 294. 



5 Baillon, Henri KrneNt, The natural history of plants. London, 1878, L. 

 Reeve & Co., in 8 volumes. Vol. 5, pages 850, 377, 394, 395 and 396. 



Radlkofer, Ludvvig, Stipindactde in die naturlichen Pflanzenj c ann lien , 

 begr. von A Kngler und K. Prantl. Leipzig, \Vrlag von Wilhelm Engelmann 

 1X96. Ill Teil. 5. Alneilung, pages 32S to 334. 



