Litchi

Litchi, or LEE-CHEE (Nephelium Li-tchi), one of the most delicious fruits of China, Cochinchina, and the Malay Archipelago. The tree which produces it belongs to the natural order Sapindaceæ, and has pinnate leaves. The fruit is of the size of a small walnut, and grows in racemes. It is a red or green berry, with a thin, tough, leathery, scaly rind, and a colourless, semi-transparent pulp, in the centre of which is one large dark-brown seed. The pulp is slightly sweet, subacid, and very grateful. The Chinese preserve the fruit by drying, and in the dried state it is imported into Britain.