161 



*' When just ripe the f rait contains but little sugar. If baked in this 

 stage, the bulk has a delicately fibrous texture, with a suggestion of 

 ' lightness' that recalls that of a loaf of wheaten bread. The flavour is 

 agreeable and characteristic, reminding one, however, a little of wasted 

 chestnuts."* 



Before ripeness is attained, the fruit is dry and rather tasteless, but 

 with complete maturity comes a sudden change of the starch content into 

 sugar, accompanied by a rich peach-like aroma, but with no correspond- 

 ing change in flavour ; even this odour is lost in the process of cooking. 

 According to Mr. Lyon the fruit in this over ripe condition is soft and 

 gummy, but is preferred by many on account of its pronounced sweet- 

 ness. 



Captain Cook, while on his first voyage round the world, made the 

 acquaintance of this vegetable-tree and has ^eft the following rather ex- 

 travagant record in his monumental folios of travel : 



'* Of the many vegetables that have been mentioned already as serv- 

 ing them for food, the principal is the bread-fruit to procure which costs 

 them no trouble or labour bur climbing a tree, ihe tree which produces 

 it does not indeed shoot up spontaneously, but if a mttn plants ten of 

 them in his life time, which he may do in about an hour, he will as com- 

 pletely fulfil his duty to his own and future generations as the native of 

 our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter 

 and reaping in the s immer's heat, as often as these seasons return; 

 even if, after he has procured bread for his present household he should 

 convert a surplus into money and lay it up for his children." 



It was through such indiscriminately bestowed praise tha the English 

 wero led to send expeditions into the Pacific to obtain the plant for the 

 West Indian colonists, with the resulting reward of disappointment in 

 its qualities. 



Culture. 

 The tree grows best in hot countries having a considerable amount of 

 atmospheric moisture and reaches its highest development in the tro- 

 pical islands of the Pacific and in the Malay Archipelago, the orii>;inal 

 home of the fruit. Hawaii is the northern limit of cultivation in the 

 Pacific, the tree growing thei^e in abundance, but with little ot the luxu- 

 riance attained in the southern islands, while on nearly the same level 

 of latitude in the Presidency of l^engal in India, all efforts at cultivat- 

 ing it have been defeated by the stunting of the summer growth by the 

 frosts of winter. Even in Midras, about a hundred miles farther south, 

 the tree has not become thoroughly acclimated after years of cultiva- 

 tion The West Indian climate is also not considered ideal for its cul- 

 ture, although it is likely that portions of the moist i or; hern slope of 

 Porto Rico are well adapted to the commercia growth of the breadfruit, 

 'ihe islands of the lesser Antilles and the shores of Central and South 

 America bordering on the ( "arribbean Sea seem to afford congenial locali- 

 ties, but it is in lirazil that its highest development in the New World 

 is attained. It is not out of the range of possibility that the fruit was 

 brought by the Portugese to their South American dependencies before 

 the French and English supplied their West Indian colonies by impor- 

 tations from the east, as in Brazil a longer series of uses was developed 



^Hawaiian Planters' Monthly, 12 ; 316. July, 1804. 



