Wester: The Breadfruit 



135 



introduced from the Marianes by the 

 Spaniards. Blanco's statement that 

 the seedless breadfruit occurs spon- 

 taneously in Leyte (Philippines) may 

 be safely discounted. 



It would appear probable that the 

 first seedless forms originated some- 

 where in the islands immediately east 

 of Java or in the Moluccas, and were 

 thence carried eastward by the Polyne- 

 sians in their migrations. As the 

 plant assumed greater importance as a 

 food staple and became generally 

 grown, it is probable that new varieties 

 in the form of bud sports appeared 

 from time to time. This belief is 

 strengthened by the fact that while in 

 Oceania there are myths purporting to 

 explain the origin of the breadfruit, so 

 far as the writer is aware there are 

 none in the folk lore of the Malays of 

 the Sunda Islands. 



PROBABLE EXTINCTION 



In "White Shadows of the South 

 Seas" Frederick O'Brien says that 

 the days of the Marquesans are num- 

 bered. In an article in the National 

 Geographic Magazine for October 1919, 

 J. W. Church corroborates this, and 

 says that his census of that year 

 found only 1,950 people alive in the 

 Marquesas, and that in the five 

 preceding years the population had 

 decreased more than 33 per cent, and 

 that ten years thence there would not 

 be a full blooded Marquesan alive. 

 Once populous valleys are already 

 swallowed up by the tropical jungle. 



It is a well-known fact that culti- 

 vated plants can not successfully 

 compete with the wild vegetation when 

 the protecting arm of man is removed. 

 And as the Marquesan is doomed to 

 extinction, so will his breadfruits — by 

 travellers described as superior to all 

 others of their kind — inevitably follow 



if man does not intervene. Some of 

 these varieties may have become 

 extinct already or be near extinction. 

 In the Society Islands the situation 

 is but slightly better. While the dis- 

 appearance of some of the breadfruits 

 would be an economic loss, there would 

 be, in addition, the sentiment of the 

 loss of that which has been the staff of 

 life of one of the races of man which 

 our own civilization has destroyed. 

 Nor should it be forgotten that, 

 although in the sciences and trades a 

 lost art or a lost invention may be 

 rediscovered, in the plant world this 

 is not so, for when the last individual 

 of a species or a variety has passed 

 away it is irrevocably lost. Again, for 

 all that has been written about the 

 breadfruit and the multiplicity of its 

 forms, the curious fact remains that 

 not more than three varieties appear 

 to have found their way from the 

 South Sea Archipelago to other lands. 

 Finally, as has already been stated, the 

 gathering together of the breadfruit 

 varieties in the Pacific Archipelagos 

 for a comparative study should add 

 further evidence relative to the much 

 mooted question of the migrations of 

 the peoples within those regions. 



A WAY OUT 



Might not the great world powers 

 with tropical possessions unite to save 

 the many kinds of this interesting and 

 useful plant from extinction? Could 

 not a trained agricultural explorer 

 familiar with the tree be sent to bring 

 its superior varieties from the remote 

 South Seas to other parts of the tropics 

 where they might thrive under intelli- 

 gent care? And would not the financing 

 of such an adventure be a benevolent 

 enterprise which should appeal to the 

 imagination of some philanthropist 

 intent on serving his fellow men? 



