THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE. 1G7 



rest of the fruit is thrown into a hole, where it undergoes a 

 second fermentation, and becomes sour, after which it will 

 suffer no change for many months. It is taken out of the hole 

 as it is wanted for use, and, being made into balls, it is wrapped 

 up in leaves and baked. 



To procure this principal article of their food costs the 

 fortunate South Sea Islanders no more trouble than plucking and 

 preparing it in the manner above described ; for, though the 

 tree which produces it does not grow spontaneously, yet, if a 

 man plants but ten of them in his lifetime, which he may do 

 in about an hour, he will, as Cook remarks, ' as completely 

 fulfil his duty to his own and future generations, as the native 

 of our less genial climate by ploughing in the cold of winter 

 and reaping in. the summer's heat as often as the seasons 

 return.' 



Dampier (1688) is the first English writer that mentions the 

 bread-fruit tree, which- he found growing in the Ladrones, 

 and a few years later Lord Anson enjoyed its fruits at Tinian, 

 where they contributed to save the lives of his emaciated and 

 scurvy-stricken followers. It continued, however, to remain 

 unnoticed in Europe, until the voyages of Wallis and Cook 

 attracted the attention of the whole civilized world to the 

 fortunate islands, whose inhabitants, instead of gaining their 

 bread by the sweat of their brow, plucked it ready formed 

 from the teeming branches of their groves. 



But the wonderful luxuriance of tropical vegetation is per- 

 haps nowhere more conspicuous and surprising than in the 

 magnificent Musacese, the banana (^Musa sapientum\ and the 

 plantain {Musa paradisiaca), whose fruits most probably 

 nourished mankind long before the gifts of Ceres became 

 known. A succulent shaft or stem, rising to the height of 

 fifteen or twenty feet, and frequently two feet in diameter, is 

 formed of the sheath-like leaf-stalks rolled one over the other, 

 and terminating in enormous light-green and glossy blades, ten 

 feet long and two feet broad, of so delicate a tissue that fche 

 slightest wind suffices to tear them transversely as far as the 

 middle rib. A stout foot-stalk arising from the centre of the 

 leaves, and reclining over one side of the trunk, supports 

 numerous clusters of flowers, and subsequently a great weight 

 of several hundred fruits about the size and sliape of full-grown 



