224 T BIN ID AD AND TOBAGO BULLETIN. [XIX. 4. 



BOTANICAL. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF THE BREAD-FRUIT INTO 

 THE WEST INDIES. 



Under the title the " West Indies Revisited " Mr. Algenion E. 

 A spinal, c.m.g., b.a., Secretary of the West India Committee, is 

 publishing in the West India Committee Circular an account of hia 

 recent official tour of these Colonies. In dealing with St. Vincent he 

 has included {W.I.C.C. XXXVI, 1921 197-9) a very full account of the 

 introduction of the bread-fruit {Artocarpus incisa) under the appropriate 

 heading " The Komance of the Bread-Fruit." The original plants were 

 brought to the St. Vincent Garden, and after the abandonment of that 

 Garden many of the plants it contained were transferred to Trinidad and 

 formed the beginning of the collections of our Royal Botanic Gardens. 

 The West India Committee played an important role in the introduction 

 of the bread-fiuit which has proved of very great value to the peasantry 

 of all the West Indian Colonies. The account now given is also of great 

 interest as recording very completely an early chapter in the history of 

 the St. Vincent and Trinidad Gardens. The thanks of the Department 

 are gratefully accorded to the West India Committee and to Mr. 

 Aspinall personally for permission to reproduce the article, and for the 

 loan of the blocks of the illustrations. 



W.G.F. 



THE ROMANCE OF THE BREAD-FRUIT. 



" St. Vincent has an historic Botanic Garden. This garden, which is 

 situated at the back of the town, about one mile from the landing-stage, 

 was first established as far back as 1765, and though it cannot claim to 

 have had a continuous existence, it is still in a very flourishing condition. 



" Probably few of those who now visit it are aware that it is closely 

 associated with the mutiny of the Bounty and the establishment of the 

 British settlement on Pitcairn Island in the far distant South Seas. Let 

 me, therefore, make a slight digression to show how this connection arose. 



" It was to supply the St. Vincent Garden with specimens of the 

 Bread-fruit tree that the memorable voyage of the Boxmtij was under- 

 taken. Anson, Dampier, and other travellers mention this tree in the 

 narratives of their voyages, but Captain Cook, who came across it 

 at Tahiti, is credited with having been the first to recommend its 

 introduction into the West Indies. His suggestion appears to have 

 impressed John Ellis, the Agent for Dominica, who devoted a treatise 

 to the subject in 1775. (^) In that work Ellis expressed the belief, based 

 on 'the favourable sentiments of the Society of West India Merchants, 

 and of the Agents of the West India Colonies ' that very handsome 

 premiums would be offered to such persons as should ' bring over in a 

 healthy growing state plants of the Mangostan, Bread-fruit, or any other 

 valuable trees that may be of real use to these Colonies.' 



A reference to the old minute books of the West India Committee 

 shows that at a Meeting of that ancient body held on February 7, 1775, 

 Mr. Beeston Long presiding, a letter was read ' from George Walker, 

 Esq., to the Chairman, relative to the introduction into England of the 

 Bread-fruit tree and Mangostan from the East Indies, in order for their 

 being sent over and propagated in the West Indies.' Whereupon it was 

 agreed 'that the West India Merchants are willing to be at any 

 reasonable expense in endeavouring to introduce the above trees into the 

 West India Colonies.' It was, no doubt, this resolution that Ellis had 

 in mind. 



