270 THE NUT CULTtJRIST. 



The fruit is extremely variable, both in size and form, 

 but mainly globose, and two to four inches in diameter. 

 The shell is Tery hard, and largely used for drinking 

 cups, and these are sometimes highly ornamented on 

 the outside. The kernel is scarcely edible, but is used 

 by the natives as a medicine. 



JuBA liruT.— See Coquito nut. 

 JuviA NVT. — See Brazil nut. 

 KiPPEK KUT. — See Earth chestnut. 

 LiTCHi NUT OE LEECHEB NUT. — I am inclined to 

 think that the aflBx of "nut" to this Oriental fruit is 

 an Americanism, and not used elsewhere. There are 

 three distinct species of this fruit known among the 

 Chinese, under the name of Litchi, Longan or Long- 

 yen, and Eambutan, all the prod- 

 uct of the Nepheliums, a genus 

 of the soapberry family {Sapin- 

 dacece). By some of the earlier 

 botanical works the litchi is placed 

 either in the genus Dimocarpus 

 or Euplioria. Within the past 

 FIG. 103. LITCHI OR f^w ycars this fruit has appeared 

 LEECHEE NUT. jn Qur markets, in consequence 



of the increased trade with Oriental countries, and facili- 

 ties for rapid transit across the continent. The litchi is 

 a globular fruit, about one inch in diameter (Fig. 103), 

 with a thin, chocolate-brown colored shell covered with 

 wart-like protuberances. When fresh the shell is filled 

 with a white, jelly-like pulp, in the center of which 

 there is one rather large, smooth brown seed. The pulp 

 is of a most delicious sub-acid flavor, but it is often, 

 rather dry and stale in the nuts which reach us from 

 China and Japan. The tree producing this fruit is sel- 

 dom more than twenty-five feet high, with rather sturdy 

 twigs and branches, the leaves composed of about seven 

 oblong pointed leaflets. This is said to be one of the 



