212 



THE BREAD FRUIT. III.* 



By Henry E. Baum. 



{Continued from the Bulletin for August.) 



The breadfruit tree, celebrated chiefly on account of the bread- 

 like appearance of the pulp of the seedless sort, is also not to be 

 dispised as a yielder of useful articles to the natives of the climes 

 in which it flourishes. Aside from the edible quality of the fruit 

 there are many uses to which various portions and products of the 

 tree itself are put. The possibilities inherent in the milky viscid 

 juice have already been discussed in the opening paper of this 

 series. Bird-lime, paint medium, caulking for canoes, and sizing 

 for wicker pots are some of the uses to which this milk is put. 

 Rubber, however, from Artocarpus is pratically settled as being at 

 the best a negative proposition, although many interesting experi- 

 ments with the latex of this plant are still to be performed before 

 final conclusions can be formulated. 



IMPORTANCE TO NATIVES. 



Although not so widely used either as a food or useful plant as 

 in primitive times, nevertheless the breadfruit is still one of the 

 most important plants to the Polynesian Islander. Rutland,! 

 writing on the history of the Pacific, quotes from Moresby to the 

 effect that the coconut and breadfruit are the only two large trees 

 capable of growing on the small purely coral islands, hence their 

 importance in Polynesia where so many of these islands exist. 



Another indication of its value in the eyes of the natives is the 

 existence in Tahiti of a legend which in abstract is as follows : — 

 " A father had an only son, whom he loved tenderly and who was 

 unable to eat the red dirt that constituted the diet of the people. 

 After praying earnestly that his dead body might become food for 

 his son, his request was granted and from his buried dismembered 

 body arose a large and handsome tree, clothed with broad shining 

 leaves, and loaded with breadfruit." + 



Ellis also records that the appearance of the natives is percep- 

 tibly improved in a few weeks after the fruit comes into season 

 while Captain David Porter tells of natives in the Marquesas who 

 who could not conceive of a land without breadfruit. 



SEEDS. 



The seeded variety of the breadfruit is common in the West 

 Indies, while the existence of the sterile sort in some islands is 

 considered doubtful on account of its scarcity. The tree generally 

 receives the name of " castana," the Spanish word for chestnut in 

 these islands, on account of the resemblance of the seeds to that 

 nut. These often appear in a germinating condition in the Porto 



*Repriuted from the The Plant World, VI, 273, Dec. 



t Rutland , Trans. New Zealand Instit., 29.9. 



X Full legend is given in Vol. 1 of Ellis's " Polynesian Researches." 



