AND RAMBOOTAN, AS FRUIT TREES. 
85 
parted, of a greenish-yellow tinged with red, covered on both sides with soft pubescence. 
Corolla wanting. Disk large, pubescent. Stamens eight, arising from the upper 
part of the disk. Fruit oblong, reticulated, red when ripe, acquiring the size of an 
Orleans plum ; pulp transparent ; stone large. It belongs to the Natural Order 
Sapindacese, and is a native both of China and various parts of the East Indies. 
During the residence of Mr. Gibson in India, whilst employed as a botanical collector 
for His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, he had frequent opportunities of testing the 
relative value of this fruit with other tropical productions ; and he considers it very 
superior to any of the varieties of Mangosteen, and certainly not surpassed by any 
other tropical fruits he tasted. The netted rind is somewhat hard and dry, but 
separates easily from the pulp, which is colourless, transparent as jelly, and exceed- 
ingly sweet, but possesses also a portion of very pleasant acid. When ripe, the 
flavour is delicious ; but the fruit are said to produce disease if eaten to excess. The 
Chinese allow them to dry until they become black like prunes ; they are also 
used to sweeten tea, to which they communicate a pleasant taste, preferable to 
sugar. They are only received in this country in a dried state. 
The trees are extensively cultivated both in the East Indies, the southern 
provinces of China, and northern parts of Cochin-China. Mr. Gibson states that the 
trees are grown in orchards, where they form broad spreading bushes, and ripen their 
fruit in the beginning of the hot season in May. He describes the pulp to be like 
that of a very fine grape with a peculiar vinous flavour, but quite destitute of anything 
like muskiness. Heavy crops are generally borne, consisting of ten or twelve full- 
grown fruit on each panicle. 
The plant does not bear strong sunlight well. In the tropics, the Lee-Chee 
orchards are sheltered by lofty trees, the shadows of which protect the fruit trees 
from injury by the intensity of light. 
The Longan, Lang-an, Long-yen, or Laong-uhan, of the Chinese, is another 
excellent fruit-bearing shrub ; it is the Euphoria Longana of our botanical cata- 
logues, the Nephelium Longana of Cambessedes in " Mem. Mus." (xviii., p. 30) ; and of 
G. Don's " System of Gard. and Bot.," (i., p. 670 ;) the Dimocarpus Longan of Loureiro, 
in " Flor. Cochin.," (p. 233,) and the Scytalia Longan of Koxburgh, in his" Hort. 
Beng.," (p. 29) ; and the Nephelium Bengalense of G. Don's " System of Gard. and 
Bot.," (i., p. 670), which last is only one of the many varieties, and not a distinct species. 
Desckiption. — Plant a tree twenty to thirty feet high. Trunk erect, branched, 
bark grey. Leaves scattered, abruptly pinnate ; common petiole (nine inches long) 
swollen at the base, nearly round, slightly scabrous, pale brown, glaucous at its origin ; 
pinna, (four inches long, one and a-half broad) in five pairs, unequal at the base, 
coriaceous, pale-green, shining and glabrous above, paler and slightly scabrous 
below ; middle rib and oblique parallel lateral veins prominent below, flat above, 
reticulation obscure. Panicle large, terminal ; raehis and its branches covered with 
soft, short pubescence. Bracts minute, deciduous. Flowers perfumed, shortly 
pedicellate. Calyx five-partite, covered on both sides, as well as the pedicels, with 
