198 THE PLANT WORLD 



captured French vessel, and a knowledge of the fact that the fruit failed 

 completely to meet expectations as a source of food supply in its new 

 home, renders its history fascinating ; and this interest is still further 

 strengthened when we reflect that it has not yet reached its decline, but 

 has a potential future as a food plant in our newly-acquired tropical 

 islands, in which it has never been properly exploited or appreciated. 



BOTANICAL DKSCRIPTION. 



The breadfruit tree (^Artocarpus communis) is botanically a member of 

 the mulberry family {Moraceae) , and is related to the Central American 

 rubber tree (^Castilla elastica) and to the common osage orange i^Toxylon 

 pomiferum) of temperate regions. The large tropical genus Ficus, which 

 includes the fig of commerce, is also not far removed from it in botanical 

 relationship. The tree attains a height of from 30 to 60 feet according 

 to soil and climate, having a diameter ranging from one to three feet. 

 The straight trunk with its rough yellowish or grayish bark rises clear 

 from the ground for 10 or 15 feet before the first wide-spreading horizon- 

 tal branches are met with ; the top of the tree is spreading, in general 

 outline roughly cone-shaped, the lower branches being the longest. The 

 tree furnishes a good shade, which is sometimes utilized in coffee and 

 cacao plantations as well as in gardens and about houses. The limbs are, 

 however, too easily broken by the wind to make it a good plantation 

 shade tree. 



The leaves are large, alternate, and vary in size and shape on the 

 same as well as on different trees. The size ranges from a foot to 2 or 

 even 3 feet in length, and from 10 to 18 or more inches in width ; in 

 outline they are ovate, cuneate and entire at base, but with the upper 

 part pinnately cleft into 6-12 more or less deep, rounded incisions. 



The fruits are borne on solitary peduncles produced from the axils of 

 the leaves near the ends of the branches. The buds are included within 

 the same enveloping leaf. The male flowers are denseh' packed on a 

 cylindrical or club-shaped fleshy catkin from 8 to 16 inches in length, 

 yellowish in color, while the female flowers are grouped around a globular, 

 fleshy receptacle, developing into a fruit morphologically analogous to 

 the mulberry or strawberry and resembling in some varieties a greatly 

 magnified sycamore seed-ball ; two or three sometimes grow closely 

 bunched (see plate). The shape, size, and markings of the fruits differ 

 greatly, some weighing but one or two pounds, others as much as eight 

 or ten pounds, and varying from 6 to 18 inches in diameter. In some of 

 the seeded varieties portions of the stigmas remain attached to the mature 

 ovaries, the fruit consequently presenting a muricate appearance, while 

 in the seedless sorts the surface is almost smooth, being marked with 



