A NEW WINE-PRODUCING FRUIT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6234, 27 April 1882, Page 3

A NEW WINE-PRODUCING FRUIT.

Among the exotic plants experimentally grown in Trinadad gardens are some specimens of the Chinese " litchee " or " lychoe " (Nephelium litchoe) which have produced from time to time a crop of fruit. Tho dried " lircheo " has of late years been introduced into . the English market — a small, round, brown-colored, hard skinned fruit, looking (something like a rough shelled nnt, but tasting very like the Muscat grape. The well nigh universal spread of the vine pest Phylloxera vaetatrir, whose ravages in Europe have resulted in annihilating tho vine - growing industry of some districts, and which also attacked the vineyards of Australia and America, has suggested to Mr Prestoe, the Government botanist of Trinadad, the possibility of utilising this fruit as a substitute for the grape, in wine-making. The skin, though hard and somewhat shelllike, is easily broken by treading, and contains a small portion of tannic acid, which would probably be useful in making wine. A possible objection may be found in the seeds, which are large and acrid, but Mr Prestoe Btates that unless tho seeds are crushed their acidity is not perceptible, and that, as a matter of fact, they are not easily bruised in tho process of pressing the fruit. The litchee has been acclimatised in Mauritius, Singapore, and in several of the West Indian Islands, where it might be cultivated on a large scale. The requirements seem to be a limestone or volcanic soil, good drainage, and not too great heat, conditions which the high land of most of the West Indian Islands possesses, and which are also to be met with in Australia and JS e w Zealand. The small experiment

m*dc by Mr Prestoe was sufficiently successful to warrant a trial on a more extensive scale in China or Mauritius, where the fresh fruit is abundant, and suggests the possibility of a new and unlooked for addition to the list of natural wines.