408 MANUAL OF TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS 



and three- to nine-lobed toward the upper end. Male and 

 female flowers are produced in separate inflorescences on the 

 same tree. The staminate or male flowers grow in dense, 

 yellow, club-shaped catkins ; the female, which are very numer- 

 ous, are grouped together and form a large prickly head upon 

 a spongy receptacle. The ripe fruit, which is composed of the 

 matured ovaries of these female flowers, is round or oval in 

 form, commonly 4 to 8 inches in diameter, green when immature 

 but becoming brownish and at length 

 yellow. The pulp is fibrous, pure white 

 in the immature fruit and yellowish in 

 the fully ripe one. The fruits are pro- 

 duced on the small branches of the tree 

 upon short, thick stalks. Clusters of 

 two or three are common. 



There are two classes of breadfruits, 

 one seedless and the other carrying 

 seeds. The former is propagated vege- 

 tatively, and is presumably the product 

 of cultivation ; the latter is often found 

 in a wild state, and is not used in the 

 same manner as the seedless kind. The 

 seeds resemble chestnuts in size and 



FIG. 53. The bread- 

 fruit, showing its internal 

 structure. This is the 

 seedless variety, generally 

 cultivated in Polynesia ; 

 the other form has seeds 

 as large as chestnuts, and 

 is not highly valued. (X 

 about i) 



appearance. 



The breadfruit is believed to be a 

 native of the Malayan Archipelago, where it has been culti- 

 vated since antiquity. From its native region it was carried 

 to the islands of the Pacific in prehistoric times. Henry E. 

 Baum, 1 who has written a lengthy history of this fruit, com- 

 ments: "The open-boat journeys of the Polynesians in their 

 peopling of the Pacific islands are marvelous from the point 

 of view of seamanship alone. . . . Probably a hundred species 

 of plants were introduced into Hawaii by the Polynesians, and 

 1 Plant World, VI, 1903. 



