38 THE LYCHEE AND 1. UNO AN 



of the well known fruit of this tree, it is highly ornamental, being 

 one of the most permanent evergreens we have in India." It certain- 

 ly provides a marked feature of much of the beautiful Kwangtung 

 landscape. 



The roots are fibrous, extending in all directions to about the 

 width of the tree and providing a thick net-work of growth (fig. 4). 



The foliage for the greater part of the year is of a deep 

 green, laurel-like appearance. In winter or spring the new growth 

 flushes forth a beautiful orange foliage (Ridgeway, Plate u, 90 R-O 

 Mars Orange), which forms quite a contrast in the appearance of the 

 tree. The leaves are compound, .-5-9 inches long, petioled and 

 abruptly pinnate. In general appearance the Chinese often compare 

 them to those of the camphor and cinnamon trees. Leaflets 2-10 

 (mostly 5, 6 and 7) usually opposite, shortly petioled, oblong or 

 oblong-lanceolate, entire, coriaceous, tapering to a fine point, base 

 cuneate. They are very smooth and glossy above, glaucous beneath 

 and of a firm texture, with netted veins, the lateral ones almost 

 obsolete. 



Flowers small and numerous, forming a large, oblong, 

 terminal and leafless panicle (fig. 5) of the length of the leaves or 

 longer. These are ramous and erect or ascending. The small 

 greenish-white or yellowish flowers, 1/12 to 1/8 inch wide are on 

 some trees mostly hermaphrodite while on others mostly male. 

 They quickly turn brown and are not of a pleasing odor. They 

 open in China in March and April, and in Bengal and British Burma 

 in February and March. Ualyx small, cup-shaped, four, rarely five 

 toothed and both sides downy. Petals none. In both the hermaph- 

 rodite and male flowers there is a large fleshy, crenulate gland, the 

 nectary, into which the stamens and pistil are inserted. Stamens 

 from 6-10. Filaments in the hermaphrodite flowers short, pubescent 

 and spreading and in the male flower almost three times as long. 

 Anthers shorter than filaments, roundish and two-lobed. Ovary 

 superior, elevated on a short column, two-lobed, pubescent, two- 

 celled, each containing a single ovule. Style erect, rather short and 

 hairy, fttigmz two cleft, divisions revolute. 



Fruit 1-2 lobed, the lobes usually solitary by abortion; very 

 rarely paired. They are round or oval about 1 to Is inches in 

 diameter with a thin, leathery, bright red muricated pericarp which 

 becomes quite brittle when dried. Next under it is the edible 



