LITCHI

or Lichi, or Lee-chee (see color-page opposite), the most famous of Chinese fruits, borne in loose clusters on a spreading tree with a dense head of rich green foliage. Under such titles as ‘‘litchi nut’’ and ‘‘Chinese nut’’ it is fairly well known here in its dried form—then a modicum of shrunken, brown or blackish, raisin-like flesh surrounding a brown seed, sometimes large, sometimes small, according to the variety, enveloped by a thin, brittle, red-tinted brown shell, roundish, about an inch to one and one-fourth inches in diameter, often indented by pre ure while it was still fresh, and marked by many small protuberances. The fresh fruit is very different in appearance. The thin shell is then a bright scarlet or a deep rose—the whole fruit suggesting the strawberry—and the flesh is a firm, white or pinkish, translucent, juicy pulp, aromatic and subacid. The fresh pulp, shelled and seeded, is imported im canned form. It is also made into excellent preserves. The food value of the litchi is in its carbohydrate content—a mixture of simple, easily digested sugars, their flavor heightened by citric and other fruit acids. Its protein percentage is small and it is practically fat free.