43i 
long ago distributed over the tropical gardens of the colonies seems 
never to have been popular, although when iirst introduced there 
was a suggestion that it might eventually be used for.making wine. 
V. polythyrsa , Miq. Is rather a handsome climber with good 
sized clusters of quite large grapes, purple black and quite eatable 
but the pulp of the fruit is rather firm and it is less juicy than that 
of the English grape. It has barely a trace of the irritating spicules. 
I have met with it in Pahang and Perak, bearing clusters 6 inches 
long and more, but a plant cultivated in the Botanic Gardens 
though growing freely over the trellis, flowers but little and pro- 
duces very few grapes. 
It is raised from seed, and grown on a bamboo trellis. 
Another wild grape with yellow fruit as large as a cherry, and 
quite eatable is Vitis Lawson i\ It is a powerful climber with very 
short corymbs of flowers so that the clusters arc very small. 
SAPINDACE/E. 
This order contains the genus Nephelium , which includes the 
well known fruits Rambutan, Pulasan and Litchi. 
The Rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum, is a medium sized tree 
with large panicles of small green flowers, sometimes uninsexual so 
that one olten finds trees which never produce any fruit, the flowers 
being male. It flowers in May and fruiting in August. The fruit 
is produced often in enormous abundance so heavily do the trees 
crop that on some years the supply is far in excess of the demand 
and much fruit is wasted. 
There are a considerable number of varieties of the fruits. The 
most conspicuous differences being in the two colourings yellow 
or crimson. The yellow varieties seem to me inferior to the red 
ones as much in taste as in beauty. A red rambutan tree in fruit, is 
probably the most beautiful fruit tree in the World. There is a 
great difference also in the flavour, the fruit of some trees being 
acid, while others are quite sweet and delicately flavoured, and 
again in the amount of flesh on the stone. In some forms the flesh 
easily comes off, while in others it is difficult to separate it. 
The fruit is usually eaten raw but is excellent when stewed, 
either as pie or with cream or it can be made into preserves, an 
oil is extracted from the seeds. 
The Pulassan ( Nephelium chryseum, Bl.) is a similar tree to the 
Rambutan, but the leaves are grey beneath. As a rule, it is a 
somewhat smaller tree, with rough bark. The flowers resemble 
those of the Rambutan, and as in that species uninsexual trees are 
not rarely to be met with. 
The fruit is larger than the Rambutan and covered with short 
thick blunt processes instead of that long hairlike processes of 
the Rambutan. It is of a deep purple brown, the rind is much 
thicker and the flesh more abundant and firmer. The flavour is 
decidedly superior to that of the Kambutan. It does not vary as 
much as the latter fruit, and chiefly in the way in which the flesh 
dings to the stone. In some fruits the flesh is easily detached 
t IW 
