144 NAT. ORDER. ARTOCARPE^E. 



green, and bake it in an oven, until the rind is black ; this they 

 scrape off; and eat the inside, which is soft and white, like the 

 inside of new baked bread, having neither seed nor stone ; but if 

 it is kept above twenty-four hours it is harsh. As this fruit is in 

 season eight months in the year, the natives feed upon no other 

 sort of bread during that time," of which we are informed the 

 Ladrone Islands pi'oduce large quantities. 



We have also been informed by captains of vessels, and sea- 

 ncn, who have spent years in the countries where the Bread-fruit 

 s most plenty, that the fruit is shaped like a heart, and increases 

 lo the size of a child's head. Its surface, or rind, is thick, green, 

 and covered everywhere with warts, of a quadragonal or hexago- 

 nal figure, like cut diamonds, but without points. The more flat 

 and smooth these warts are, the less number of seeds are contained 

 in the fruit, and the greater is the quantity of pith, and that of a 

 more glutinous nature. The internal part of the rind, or peel, 

 consists of a fleshy substance, full of twisted fibres, which have 

 the appearance of fine wool. These adhere to, and in some 

 measure foi-m it. The fleshy part of the fruit becomes softer to- 

 wards the middle, where there is a small cavity formed, without 

 any nuts or seeds, except in one species, which has but a small 

 maiiber ; and this sort is not considered good, unless it is baked, 

 or prepared in some other way : but, if the outward rind be taken 

 olT, and the fibrous flesh dried, and afterwards boiled with meat, 

 as we do cabbage, it has then the taste of Cynara, artichoke 

 bottoms. The inhabitants of Amboyna dress it in the liquor of 

 cocoa-nuts ; but they prefer it roasted on coals, till the outward 

 part, or peel, is burnt. They afterwards cut it into pieces, and 

 eat it with the milk of the cocoa-nut. Some people make fritters 

 of it, or fry it in oil ; and others, as the Sumatrians, dry the inter- 

 nal soft part, and keep it to use as bread, with other food. It af- 

 fords a great quantity of nourishment, and is very satisfying; and 



