278 
CHINESE AND JAPANESE FRUIT. 
" The Jujube tree (Ziziphus Jujuba) is uni- 
versally cultivated for the sake of its fruit, 
which is brought to a very high degree of 
excellence both in appearance and flavour. 
There is no fruit tree, perhaps, which requires 
less care than this, and none certainly on which 
the Chinese have bestowed so much pains in 
the improvement of it ; it always bears abun- 
dantly, and is sufficiently esteemed to form a 
part of the dessert at the best tables. Among 
more than sixty kinds which they enumerate, 
there are early, late, long, round, large, small, 
white, yellow, red, violet, pink, murrey-co- 
loured, perfumed, honey-scented, sweet and 
acid sorts, and finally, some with kernels and 
some without them. The tree is common 
enough in this country, and probably would 
bear fruit in a common green-house, with a 
very moderate degree of artificial heat. 
" The Kaki (Diospyros Kaki), is another 
fruit which has never been perfected in 
England, although the tree has been here for 
many years, and although there is no doubt 
that it would well repay the trouble of culti- 
vation. The fruit is the size and shape of an 
apple, with a reddish orange coloured skin ; the 
flesh is semi-transparent, brown, soft, and 
pulpy, with a most agreeable, honey-like fla- 
vour. In the inside are several hard seeds. 
Of the varieties the chief are, 
" 1. Ono Kaki, of which the fruits are like 
an orange ; being dried in the sun and mixed 
with sugar, they are preserved and sold as figs. 
"2. KineriKaki, of which the fruit is not fit 
for drying, but must be eaten fresh. 
" 3. Ssibu Kaki, of which the fruit is bitter 
and not fit to eat. Two varieties are figured 
among the oriental drawings of the Society. 
" The Longan or Long-yen, and the Li-tchi, 
two species of Dimocarpus, are held in high 
estimation, and are cultivated in considerable 
variety ; the inhabitants eat them with tea. 
To the account in the Transactions of the 
Society, I find it necessary to add nothing, 
except that the trees bear fruit much more 
quickly when raised from cuttings than they 
do if reared from seeds, requiring eight or nine 
years in the latter case, and only three or four 
in the former. The fruit of the Long-yen 
which was produced at Mr. Knight's of Lee 
Castle seems to have been in every respect as 
good as an}' grown in China. 
"The Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica). has also 
frequently ripened its fruit in the conservato- 
ries about London ; it is sufficiently well 
known to render any account of it unnecessary. 
"The Chinese also produce at table the thick- 
ened peduncles of Ilovenia dulcis, and they 
are said to taste like a Bergamot pear, but I 
believe they are not in mucli esteem. There 
are, probably, some others of minor importance 
which have escaped my recollection, not to 
mention the excellent Psidium Cattleianwn ; 
but I apprehend they will be found to be such 
as are far surpassed by the commonest garden 
fruits of our own climate." 
THE FLAT PEACH OF CHINA. 
This fruit is of truly singular form, and 
perhaps will be best described as having the 
appearance of a Peach flattened by pressure at 
the head and stalk. Its upright diameter, 
taken through the centre from eye to stalk, 
being eleven-sixteenths of an inch, consisting 
wholly of the stone, except the skin ; that of 
its sides is one inch and one-eighth, its trans- 
verse diameter being two inches and a half. 
The head of the fruit is cracked in such a man- 
ner as to look like a broad and rather hollow 
eye, of an irregular five-angled (or lobed) 
shape, surrounded by the appearance of re- 
mains of the leaves of the calyx : the whole 
surface of this eye is roughly marked with 
small irregular warted lines, like the crown of 
a Medlar. The colour of the skin of the fruit 
is pale yellow, mottled or rather speckled with 
red on the part exposed to the sun, and covered 
with a fine down. The flesh is pale yellow, 
having a beautiful radiated circle of fine red 
surrounding the stone, and extending far into 
the fruit. The stone is flatly compressed, 
small, rough, and irregular. The consistence 
and flavour of the flesh is that of a good melt- 
ing Peach, being sweet and juicy, with a little 
noyeau flavour or bitter aroma. This Peach is 
cultivated in China-; representations of it be- 
ing continually seen on the papers and draw- 
ings received from that country : and it is 
well known at Canton, where it is esteemed as 
a good fruit. A figure of it is now given ; the 
