THE LITCHI IN HAWAII. 1 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 3 
Common names of the fruit 4 
History and distribution 4 
Natural requirements 6 
Cultural requirements 6 
The litchi crop 12 
The litchi as food 13 
Insects and mites 15 
Varieties 18 
Botanical status and relationships 20 
INTRODUCTION. 
Many tropical fruits, hitherto unknown or neglected outside their 
native countries, are now receiving attention, not only in the markets 
of the Temperate Zone, but among growers in the Tropics and in 
subtropical regions, where some of the more hardy of these fruits 
are being acclimatized. Within a generation the banana has passed 
from a rare luxury to a staple food product, the pineapple from a 
little known fruit used for flavoring to a highly prized article of food, 
sold by the millions of cases of canned as well as fresh fruit. These 
two fruits are but the pioneers, and others are following close after 
them to popularity. The grapefruit has already established itself. 
The avocado, the most conspicuous aspirant for popular favor at 
the present time, has overcome much skepticism and now appears in 
varieties that can be grown just outside the Tropics, hundreds of 
acres being planted in Florida and California, and it is prevented 
from becoming the basis of an important industry in Hawaii only by 
occasional attacks of the Mediterranean fruit fly, which place this 
fruit on the quarantine list in the Pacific ports of the United States 
and Canada. 
The litchi, the subject of this bulletin, is another of these tropical 
or subtropical fruits which is just beginning to attract commercial 
attention outside of China, its native country, where it has been 
cultivated for centuries. To the people who have lived upon the 
shores of the Pacific the litchi "nut" is a more or less famihar article 
of food, especially at the season of the Chinese New Year. Few of 
those who dwell east of the Philippines, however, have seen the fresh 
fruits which, when dried, form the litchi nuts of commerce. In 
most varieties the ripe fruit has an outer shell-like covering of brilliant 
red, giving a dish of them a striking resemblance to large straw- 
berries. The flesh within this tough outer covering is white with 
1 Litchi chinensis (Nephelium litchi), natural order Sapinlacese. For further discussion of the botanical 
status and relationships see p . 20. 
(3) 
