THE PLANT WORLD 231 



of a mystery, some even going so far as to suggest a reversion to the 

 primitive type by the sterile fruits, with the consequent formation of 

 seeds. The reversion theory is hardly tenable, however, when we find 

 printed records of the seeded variety antedating 1793. Bligh, moreover, 

 in claiming the reward of the Society of Arts for his feat made an affi- 

 davit stating that but one seeded plant (from Timor) was secured by 

 him. The proportion is thus so small, one to seven hundred, that it is 

 obviously inadequate to populate the West Indies even if the records of 

 the seeded sort before 1793 had not been found. 



Tussac, however, in his monumental "Flora des Antilles," buried 

 nearly a hundred years ago the fact that Lord Rodney in 1782 * was instru- 

 mental in introducing the seeded breadfruit into Jamaica. The fortunes 

 of war had that year thrown into his hands a French vessel laden with useful 

 plants of the East Indies destined for the French West Indian colonies. 

 In a list of the plants growing in the gardens of Hinton East in Jamaica, 

 Bryan Edwards gives the Jak alone as being introduced by Lord Rodney, 

 while Tussac credits the same sailor with the introduction of both the 

 Jak and breadfruit. The famous No. 11 mango was also one of the hor- 

 ticultural spoils of this ship, which was captured while en route between 

 Mauritius and Santo Domingo. These vegetable aristocrats were intended 

 for the French colonists in Santo Domingo, but were strangely enough 

 enjoyed by her greatest rival, England. Before 1792, however, accord- 

 ing to a record in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, the French 

 successfully introduced the seeded variety into Martinique, as in that year 

 Mr. Robley, the governor of Tobago, imported from the French island 

 plants which he grew with the understanding that they were of the seed- 

 less variety, but was greatly disappointed when they turned out to be 

 full of seeds and consequently worthless, according to his light. These 

 introductions, however, occasioned but little notice, and when Captain 

 Bligh in 1793 successfully brought the Tahiti fruit he was universally 

 given the credit for the first introduction. It may be that the presence 

 of the inferior seeded kind was the cause of the English in those islands 

 petitioning for the importation of the true or seedless breadfruit, whose 

 utility they were just beginning to appreciate through contact with the 

 writings of Dampier, Anson, Byron, and Cook. 



[to be concluded.] 



The New York Botanical Garden has recently acquired land and 

 buildings at Cinchona, Jamaica, where it will establish shortly a sub- 

 tropical laboratory. 



♦Sagot (Journ. Cent.d'Hort. de France, 2 ser. 6: 38. 1872) also records this introduction of the 

 seeded fruit, presumbly after Tussac. 



