THE BREADFRUIT 



A PLEA FOR THE PRESERVATION OF VARIETIES 



The Marquesan Islanders Are Rapidly Disappearing, and Will Soon Carry Their 



Breadfruits with Them to Extinction, Unless Measures are Taken to 



Preserve the Numerous Varieties of this Useful Tropical Fruit 



P. J. Wester 



Bureau of Agriculture, Philippine Islands 

 Manilla, P.I. 



of nourishing, palatable and whole- 

 some food, there is no tropical fruit 

 today so neglected and of so little 

 actual importance as the breadfruit, 

 for the teeming populations of the 

 Pacific islands whose principal means 

 of subsistance it was, have dwindled 

 to a mere handful. 



MYTHICAL ORIGIN 



«TN the reign of a certain king 

 X when the people ate Araea, red 

 earth, a husband and wife had 

 an only son whom they tenderly loved. 

 The youth was weak and delicate, and 

 one day the husband said to the wife: 

 'I compassionate our son, he is unable 

 to eat the red earth. I will die and 

 become food for him.' The wife said: 

 'How will you become food?' He 

 answered: 'I will pray to my god; he 

 has power and he will enable me to do 

 it.' Accordingly he repaired to the 

 family Marae and presented his peti- 

 tion to the deity. A favorable answer 

 was given to his prayer, and in the 

 evening he called his wife to him and 

 said: 'I am about to die; when I am 

 dead take my body and separate it; 

 plant my head in one place, my heart 

 and stomach in another, and then go 

 into the house and wait. When you 

 shall hear a sound, first like that of a 

 leaf, then of a flower, afterwards of an 

 unripe fruit and subsequently of a ripe 

 fruit falling to the ground, know that it 

 is I who am become food for our son.' 

 He died soon after. His wife obeyed 

 his injunction, planting the stomach 

 near the house as directed. After a 

 while she heard a leaf fall, then the 

 large scales of the flower, then the 

 unripe fruit, afterwards one full grown 

 and ripe. By that time it was day- 

 light. She awoke her son and took him 

 out and they beheld a large, handsome 

 tree with broad, shiny leaves loaded 

 with breadfruit." 



So, according to tradition in Tahiti, 

 originated the seedless breadfruit, the 

 "staff of life" of the South Sea 

 Archipelagoes. 



Paradoxically enough, considering its 

 potential value as an abundant source 



A PLANT INTRODUCTION ROMANCE 



Many fantastic stories have been told 

 about the breadfruit. Byron, for 

 instance, says: 



The breadfruit tree, which without plough- 

 share yields 

 The unreap'd harvest of unfurrow'd fields 

 And bakes its unadulterated loaves. 

 Without a furnace in unpurchased groves, 

 And flings off famine from its fertile breast, 

 A priceless market for the gathering guest. 



The breadfruit, however, is not a 

 wheaten loaf which may be plucked 

 from the uncared-for forest tree, though 

 it is the nearest approximation thereto 

 in the vegetable world. Solander, 

 who accompanied the famous Captain 

 Cook, and one of the first botanists to 

 see the breadfruit, called it "the most 

 useful vegetable in the world." Indeed, 

 tales of the breadfruit by travellers 

 and pirates of those early days so 

 fired the imagination of the stay-at- 

 homes that the British Government 

 despatched a ship to Tahiti to take the 

 new vegetable wonder to the British 

 colonies in the West Indies, providing 

 what is perhaps the most dramatic 

 incident in the history of plant intro- 

 duction. 



The Bounty, a vessel of about two 

 hundred and fifteen tons burden, under 

 command of Lieutenant Bligh, was 

 fitted up for a voyage to the Society 

 Islands and sailed from England in 

 1787. After crossing the equator 

 the commander steered for Cape Horn 



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