Inventory 40, Seeds and Plants Innported. 



Plate I. 



The First Chinese Litchi Tree (Litchi chinensis Sonnerat) to Fruit in the 

 United States. (See S. P. I. No.'38779.) 



Although the famous Afong litchi tree has borne more or less regularly in Honolulu for the past 

 twenty years, most of the attempts which have been made to grow this species in California 

 and Florida have failed. This illustration, according to Mr. Hadley, shows a seedling intro- 

 duced by Reasoner Bros., of Oneco, Fla., now growing on the Iladley place in Santa Barbara, 

 Cal. It was 9 feet high and had a spread of 13i feet at the time the photograph here repro- 

 duced was taken, October 28, 1914. In 1914 it bore and ripened several fruits. In 1915 it 

 bloomed but failed to fruit. It was not injured by the freeze of 1913, although to just how low 

 temperatures it was subjected is not kno^vn. A report from India indicates that 21° F. will 

 injure the foliage, whereas a similar report from South China is to the eflect that 24° F. injured 

 large trees severely. The freeze of February 3, 1917 (temperature 26° F.), at Miami, Fla., killed 

 10-year-old trees nearly to the ground, (rhotographed by Wilson Popenoe, October 28, 1914; 

 P16216FS.) 



