88 THJ<; LYOHEE ANJ) LUNG AN 



As early as 1492 in -the Annals of Fukien there was published 

 a list of 40 varieties at the head of which are the names of the three 

 sent as a contribution to the Emperor. These three and 30 follow- 

 ing are apparently those which this writer wishes to designate the 

 " water lychee " and the best general type; for at the end of the 

 list he names 7 varieties which he calls the " mountain lychee", the 

 first three of which he has classified as "medium" quality. Ts'ai 

 Hsiang in his Li Chih P'u lists 12 varieties under what he calls the 

 "Chen family purple >J class and 20 under the Hu pi Qfcjfc) or 

 "tiger skin" class. In writing of these 32 varieties Ts'ai Hsiang 

 says, " ...... Those which are named'after the families which produce 



them are the best known. When the name of a locality is mentioned 

 in the description of a variety, it indicates that it is a variety peculiar 

 to that particular place. Those varieties which are not named after 

 families, and no particular place of production is mentioned, probably 

 grow in all four places Foochow (ffiJH), Chuanchow (&#0, 

 Hinghwa (tlffc), and Changchow ($fcft|) prefectures of Fukien." 



Sung Yu (5JcS) 1 in his Li Chih P'u names 22 kinds of lychee 

 growing in the Kwang provinces that Cheng Hsiung (g|$&) has 

 previously recorded, while in the Annals of Kwangtung there are 

 listed about 30 varieties and Wu Ying K'uei 2 in his Ling Nan Li 

 Chih P'u lists more than 70 varieties. Most of these he carefully 

 describes, states the chief districts in which they are grown and gives 

 the history of their origin. A list of his "Ling Nan " varieties is 

 also appended. Mr. F. D. Cheshire, formerly U. S. Consul at 

 Canton, in a report on the lychee published in Plant Immigrants, a 

 multigraphed bulletin issued by the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant 

 Introduction, and quoted in the Litchi in Hawaii, briefly described 

 15 Kwangtung varieties. 



The Chinese of Kwangtung say that the lychee has more 

 varieties than any other fruit. This they believe to be due to the 

 tendency of the lychee to change its qualities under different cultural 



1 SUNG YU (&&), Li Chih P'u (&$I9) in Ku Chin Tu Shu Chi 

 Cheng (**{!), Po Wu Bui Pien dfttgff}, Ts'ao Muh Tien 



section 273 (rW-fe-i-H*), Li Chih Pu 1 (3*ffl5-), page 8 



(**;). 



2 WU YING K'UEI (^Jjgai), Ling- Nan Li Chih P'u 

 Ling Nan I Shue ($&&), book 59 (5rbJL#), section 4 

 1-10 (- 



