THE PI.ANT WORLD 275 



Agriculture says that in Samoa, owing to the abundance of the paper 

 mulberry, the natives do not use the breadfruit in this connection, while 

 in Guam the practice, common in olden times, has of late been discon- 

 tinued. The paper mulberry does not grow in Guam ; the bark is 

 not extracted by the Fijians. In Captain Cook's First Voyage (Vol. 2, 

 pp. 21] -213, Hawkesworth Ed.) there is an extended account of the 

 preparation of the cloth from the inner bark of the breadfruit, unfortunately 

 too long for quotation at this time. 



MISCELLANEOUvS USES. 



\w\ki^ Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society for November, 1900 

 (pp. 668, 669), Mr. W. Kirkland suggests the preparing of banana and 

 breadfruit flour for fodder from small and imperfect fruits. The fruits 

 require but a day's drying on the rocks in the sun after being sliced, and 

 are then ready to be ground, sifted, and fed to the stock. According to 

 Mr. Kirkland the flour was eaten with relish by horses and he has often 

 seen stock eating bananas and breadfruits as they lay rotting on the 

 ground. Two bunches of bananas made 10 >^ quarts of flour according 

 to his account, but no mention is made of the size of the bunches. Out- 

 side of the use of this flour as fodder the banana flour makes a good 

 esculent, which can be cooked in various ways, and was preferred by the 

 author to cornmeal, yams, or coconuts. 



According to Mr. W. E. Safford the breadfruit grows so plentifully 

 on the island of Guam ' ' that it might prove profitable to utilize it there 

 for the manufacture of starch, or 'arrowroot,' as has been successfully 

 done in the French colonies of Martinique and Reunion, and in Brazil." 

 Horses and cattle are fond of the leaves and they are often used as 

 fodder. In some of the Pacific islands the natives say "that no one eats 

 the breadfuit raw, except hogs," and these animals grow very fat in 

 the breadfruit season. 



During the Cuban insurrection many refugees sought sanctuary 

 in New York, and it was then that an attempt was made to transport 

 fruit from Jamaica to the metropolis in accordance with a desire for the 

 fruit among the patriots. Mr. J. W. Gruber, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, 

 claimed that fruits with their outer surfaces charred will keep for months 

 and be readily transportable to New York, but before the experiment 

 could be tried the war was over and a seemingly favorable market ruined. 

 No other similar attempt has been made, so far as records are known 



to us. 



According to Engler in the ' ' Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien, ' ' the roots 

 of the breadfruit possess astringent qualities, a decoction being taken 

 internally in cases of diarrhea and dysentery, while it is also applied exter- 

 nally to cutaneous disorders. 



