143 



on a cylindrical or club-sliaped fleshy catkin from 8 to 16 inches in 

 length yellowish in colour, while the female flowers are grouped 

 around a globular, fleshy receptacle, developing into a fruit morpholo- 

 gically analogous to the mulberry or strawberry and resembling in 

 some varieties a greatly magnified sycamore seed-ball : two or three 

 sometimes grow closely bunched. 'I'he 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 inch< s in 

 diameter. In some of the seeded varieties portions of the stigmas re- 

 main attached to the mature ovaries, the fruit consequently present- 

 ing a muricate appearance, while in the seedless sorts the surface is 

 almost smooth, being marked with hexagonal areolae. The peduncles, 

 petioles, and fleshy parts of the branches are all covered with very 

 short, fine hair, harsh to the touch. 



VARIETIES. 



All breadfruits fall under one of two great varietal heads accor.ling 

 as they do or do not mature seeds. Through long-continued cultiva- 

 tion a portion of the trees began to produce abortive seeds and to de- 

 pend more and more upon human agency for the perpetuation of their 

 kind, until the seedless sort was evolved. This variety is propagated 

 by suckers from the roots, which are not especially hardy and require 

 average care in transplanting, but with the usual agricultural skill 

 displayed by the I'olynesians were taken from group to group in the 

 Pacific until the whole oceanic archipelago was occupied. In their 

 new home the differentiation went on, until in some of the islands 

 there are as many as twenty-five recognised local varieties.* While 

 there can be no doubt but that some of these are identical with varie- 

 ties in other groups, there is, nevertheless, no way of getting a tenta- 

 tive descriptive list until they are grown together or a ge eral survey 

 made. 



The seeded breadfruit is almost entirely propagated by means of 

 seeds, while the seedless or abortive sort is perpetuated by suckers 

 from the roots, by branch and root cuttings, by various modifications 

 of the process of layering, and by grafting. 



RUBBER-PRODUCING QUALITIES. 



The wliitish viscid juice in which this tree, like all its relatives, 

 abounds, is not the least important of its products, meeting with ready 

 and constat) t us« in the islands of the Pacific as a pitch and bird lime. 

 The natives of Br..zil, to whom the tree was unknown a hundred and 

 fifty years ago, use its latex as a bird lime and a substitute for ^lue, it 

 being entered in fact in Pearson's work on rubber substances under the 

 name of " Brazilian bird lime." It is, however, in the South Seas that 

 it becomes of actual economic importance, being about the only avail- 

 able j^um for caulkinjj the seams of canoes, which are in most cases 

 not mere dugouts, but boats cunningly constructed from pieces of 

 wood 18 inches to 5 feet in length and usually sewn together with the 

 fibre prepared from the husk of the coconut. 



In most lists of rubber-producing plants one member, at least, of the 

 genus Artocarpus is generally given, and the breadfruit itself has been 



* Christian records twonty-five varieties nf the sterile breadfruit from Poiiape 

 in Carohne Island, (Christian, F.W. " The Caroline Islands," London, 1899.) 



