4 MOXOECIA. 



author of many works upon different branches of na- 

 tural knowledge. 



BREAD FRUIT TREE, Artocarpus communis, is 

 supposed to be of this Order. This celebrated tree has 

 been brought into particular notice since the dis- 

 covery of Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands, where 

 the fruit is eaten as bread. It is also a native of many 

 islands in the East Indies, as Java, Amboyna, Banda, 

 Sec. but in those islands the tree was not cultivated, 

 and little use was made of the produce. 



The tree is described to be of the size of a mid- 

 dling Oak, and the fruit to be of the size and shape of 

 a child's head, growing on boughs like apples, with a 

 hard, thick, and tough rind. Whea it is ripe it is yel- 

 low and soft, and the taste sweet and pleasant. It 

 is gathered when full grown, while it is green and 

 hard, and baked in an oven, which scorches the rind 

 and makes it black ; the outside black crust is then 

 scraped off, and there remains a tender thin crust; 

 the middle, soft, tender, and as white as snow, and 

 somewhat of the consistence of new bread. In this 

 sort, which is the best, there is neither stone nor seed 

 in the inside, but all of one pure uniform substance. 

 It requires to be eaten new; if it be kept more than 

 twenty-four hours it becomes dry and choaky, but 

 very pleasant before it is too stale, having some- 

 what of the taste of a Jerusalem Artichoke. This 

 fruit lasts in season eight months in the year, during 

 which time the natives of the islands in the South 

 Seas, where the tree is cultivated, eat no other sort of 



