THE LYCHEE AND l.rNcJAN IN COMMERCE 75 



and Methods of 



Wu Tsai Ao (ftfttt) 1 in his (/'/// Li Chili (;?tij^;fc) says 

 that the first day after picking, the lychee loses its color, the second 

 day its fragrance, the third its taste; and by the end of the fourth or 

 fifth day all color, taste and fragrance are gone. His statement is 

 overdrawn, though there is nothing quite so delicious as lychee, 

 ripened on and freshly picked from the trees. Wu Tsai Ao (*&fSc||) 

 then devotes a whole section of his treatise to the question of pre- 

 SIT\ at ion. 



Hsu Po (\fe$i} 2 devotes more than half of his work to how 

 !o prepare and eat the lychee. He has a number of honied recipes, 

 one of which calls for the mashed green fruit, boiled with honey and 

 then set aside in a jar for one month until it jells. Another: 

 "Secure some fresh lychee and dry them in the sun for one day. 

 Remove the skin and the seeds from the meat, and to each catty add 

 one and one-half catties of white honey. Boil over sand (a slow 

 fire) until there are from 100-1000 bubbles. Pour into earthen jars 

 (not iron), alternately heat and cool for one day, and then in this 

 earthen jar dry the mass in the sun until it solidifies." 



The Chinese are connoisseurs in rare and dainty dishes and 

 the lychee has offered an attractive field for the development of this 

 art. Canton restaurants list delicious lychee dishes with meat or 

 syrup dressings and most of the local writers on the lychee have 

 described various methods of salting, preserving, or canning and dry- 

 ing the lychee. Mr. Higgins' also gives some local recipes for 

 preserving the fruit. 



r TSAI AO ($MH', Chi Li Chih (,&$) in Ku Chin Tu Shu 

 Chi Chfwr (Vf^IiltftM), I'o H'H H'li Pten (t$4%Mi), TCno Mnh Tien 

 ft), section 274 (^r.lflrW^, Li CKih l> 1 ( l^^n), pat;-r 7 

 



1 HSU PO ($tf#l), Li Chih P'u ( %,$3) in Ku Chin Tu Shu Chi 

 Chen? (T^BHHlft), Po H'u Urn Picn (1f4^^), Ts'ao Muh Tien 

 tion -'73 tm^rt-L-l-H^), /./ Ch,h /'// 2 (&3&K), pa^ 5 



1 Hissi" N ? J-E. , The. Lit<lii in Hfi^vttii, Hawaii Aj^ricultxiral J-',\|)t-ri- 

 nicnt vSt.iliim, litillctin no. 44, P;I^'N 14 ;imi I ^. 



