MKTHODS OF IK< >1'A< i ATlON 67 



Tang Tao Hsieh (f&atlfc) 1 reports this method of " pok 

 chih (JKtt) also in use in Fukien province. He says, 'The 

 lichee are not produced from seed. Good branches are selected, 

 injured and wrapped with mud until white root-like hairs begin to 

 grow out when they are covered with another layer of mud and later 

 cutoff. In spring they send out new leaves." Mr. Higgins re- 

 ports 92 modiHcations of the Chinese method of air-layering which 

 he has employed in Hawaii. 



I'roiHujalioH by Inarching 



Another method of propagating the lychee, and employed 

 especially with the lungan, is the inarch method know by the Chinese 

 under the name ai chih (j&). The small seeded No mi chih 

 (f^Mv^J variety is often thus propagated and high headed trees (see 

 end of bed, fig. 36) with trunks six to eight feet, are often grown in 

 this way. Good strong seedlings usually of the mountain variety, 

 Shan chih (Ulfe), are first established, often in pots. These plants 

 are raised in spring, carried to the scion trees, inarched, and held in 

 place by bamboo framing until the union has formed. 



With regard to the application of this method, Mr. G. W; 

 Oliver, expert propagator at the Washington greenhouses, in a re- 

 port to the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, dated 

 September 1914, says, We had a considerable number of seedling 

 litchi plants grown from seeds secured from China by your office. 

 When the seedlings were in three inch pots they were used in in- 

 arching to small branches on large plants The litchi inarching 



work is exceedingly easy and plants could be raised in any quantity 

 provided you had the seedlings and named varieties to work with." 

 In 1910 Mr. Oliver also succeded in inarching some seedlings of 

 lungan with small twigs of lychee plants which had been secured via 

 Shanghai. This was apparently the first time recorded when the 

 lychee was put on stock other than its own. In his report Mr. 

 Oliver said, '* As I recollect I did not have more than three stocks 

 of the longan for the inarching experiments in 1910, and I did not 

 regard them as very successful. But the seedling longans were large 



1 TANG TAO HSIEH (gh'ill&), Li Chih P'u (&;19) in Ku Chin 

 Tu Shu Chi Cheng (l^I@fftJ&), Po Wu Hui Pien (If^RSg), Ts'ao 

 Mnti Tien {'$;!&), section 2?~ (^UlT-trr-H^), J.i <7///// Pu 2 l 

 page 6 (tftx-TfC)- 



