NAT. ORDER 



Artocarpece. 



ARTOCARPUS INCISA. BREAD-FRUIT TREE 



Class XXI. MoNCECiA. Order I. Monandria. 



Gen. Ch<ir. Flotvcrs, monoecios, in heads or catkins. Calyx, 



with an uncertain number of divisions. 

 Spe. Char. Male Calyx, two-valved. Corolla, wanting. Style, 



one. Drupe, many-celled. 



The Bread-fruit, ^r/ora?j7M.s ^?^c^5a, grows on a tree about* 

 thirty feet in height ; the leaves are large, being from eighteen to 

 twenty inches wide, and from two to three feet long, pinnatified, 

 and deeply gashed; the fruit is about the shape and size of a 

 child's head, with a rough and net-like surface ; the skin is thin, 

 and it has a small core at the centre, which is nearly as white as 

 snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread 



Though this tree has been mentioned by many voyagers, and 

 particularly by Dampier, Rumphius, and Lord Anson, yet very 

 little notice seems to have been taken of it, until the return of 

 Capt Wallis from the South Seas ; and since that time by others 

 who have touched at Otaheite, and some other countries in the 

 East Indies. Capt. Dampier relates, that in Guam, one of the 

 Ladrone Islands, " there is a certain fruit called the Bread-fruit, 

 growing on a tree, which is about the size of our apple-trees, 

 with large dark leaves. The fruit is round, and grows on the 

 boughs like apples, and is of the size of a small loaf of bread ; 

 when ripe it turns yellow, soft, and sweet ; but the natives take it 



Vol ii.— 143. 



