THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 41 



The Indians hollow out the trunk to make their pi- 

 raguas, some of which measure 80 feet in length by 

 nine in width, and thus enable them to make long 

 ocean voyages. 



We return to the true bread-fruit-tree. The dis- 

 coveries in Oceanica have rendered it celebrated, and 

 special expeditions have been undertaken for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining roots for transplantation in different 

 parts of the Old and New World. We shall presently 

 notice the most remarkable of these expeditions. The 

 following are the distinctive characteristics of this tree : 



The trunk is straight, as thick as a man's body, 

 and rises in a gentle spiral to the height of about 40 feet. 

 Its large round top covers with its shadow a space 30 

 feet in diameter. The wood is yellowish, soft and 

 light. The leaves, 1-J feet long and one foot wide, large 

 and permeated with seven or eight lobes, a form which 

 characterizes this species. The same branch bears 

 male and female flowers. The bread obtained from 

 the tree is its globular fruit, larger than a child's 

 head, weighing three to four pounds, and rough on the 

 outside, covered with hair. The thick green rind en- 

 closes a pulp, which, during the month that precedes 

 maturity, is white, farinaceous, and slighly fibrous ; 

 but when ripe, changes in color and consistency, and 

 becomes yellow and succulent or gelatinous. The 

 island of Otaheiti abounds in the best kind of these 

 trees, which bear fruit without seed ; the other islands 

 of Oceanica produce varieties of less valuable bread- 

 fruit, containing angular seeds almost as large as 

 chestnuts. 



