THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



753 



Photo hy Editor 



Liiche Free. 



THE Litche tree, of which the above is 

 an illustration, is deserving of much 

 more attention than it gets. The tree re- 

 presented is growing in the Botanic Gar- 

 dens, Durban, and the following informa- 

 tion is gathered from the Curator, Mr. J. 

 Medley Wood, A.L.S. :— The tree is a 

 native of Japan and Southern China, and 

 the late Colonel Vaughan, R.A., was of 

 opinion, from what he had seen of it in 

 China, that it would do in most parts of 

 this colony. Messrs. Wilkinson and 

 others in the neighbourhood of Maritz- 

 burg have specimens which are doing 

 well. Last year the above tree bore 

 3,000 fruits, and in Durban the fruit sold 

 readily at from 9d. to Is. per doz. Three- 

 pence per doz. would pay well. In its 

 native state the tree is found on river 

 sides, and when cultivated away from 

 streams, watering is necessary during the 

 flowering and fruiting season. The tree 

 is some twenty feet in height, and the 

 fruit ripens in December and January. 

 The timber is of ng commercial use. The 



fruit is about the size of a walnut, and is 

 covered with a brown, rough, wart-like 

 shell. I he inside is filled with an almost 

 transparent swee^ stiff pulp, enclosing a 

 brown seed. The tree may be propagated 

 by seed, but such trees will not bear for 

 twenty or thirty years. If propagated by 

 layering, fruit will appear from the third 

 or fourth year. The layering is from 

 branches, and not from roots. A piece of 

 bamboo, of about fifteen inches in length, 

 is split down the middle, and this casing, 

 filled with earth, is bound round a suit- 

 able branch. The bamboo supports of 

 these layering boxes are clearly seen in 

 the illustration. As may be supposed, the 

 young trees are somewhat expensive, IDs. 

 being a common price. Purchasers should 

 insist upon the planting-out into the soil 

 of the plants before acceptance, because 

 not a small percentage fail to live after 

 severance from the parent tree. 



The Florida orange crop 

 1,000,000 boxes this year. 



is estimated for 



