THE BREADFRUIT AND ITS RELATIVES 417 



southern Florida, however, there are several fruiting trees, but 

 on the shallow soils of that region they do not grow to large 

 size, and the fruits which have been produced were not of good 

 quality. The species is probably too strictly tropical in its 

 requirements to be entirely successful in any part of this country. 



Concerning the origin of the name jackfruit, which is known 

 to be an English adaptation of the Portuguese jaca, Yule and 

 Burnell say : " Rheede rightly gives tsjaka (chakka) as the 

 Malayalam name, and from this no doubt the Portuguese took 

 jaca and handed it on to us." Kanthal, kathal, panasa, and 

 kantaka are some of the vernacular names used in India. The 

 French call it jacque. The orthography of the common English 

 name might better be jakfruit, and indeed this spelling is 

 employed by some writers, but the commoner form jackfruit 

 will probably be hard to displace. Artocarjnis Integra, L., is a 

 botanical synonym. 



The fruit is eaten fresh, or it may be preserved in sirup, or 

 dried like the fig. Thomas Firminger writes : " If the edible 

 pulp of the fruit be taken out and boiled in some fresh milk, 

 and then be strained off, the milk will, on becoming cold, form 

 a thick jelly-like substance of the consistency of blanc-mange, 

 of a fine orange color, and of melon-like flavor. Treated in 

 this way the fruit affords a very agreeable dish for the table." 

 Father Tavares has this warning: "It must be eaten when 

 full ripe, and not at meal times ; a cup of cool water should be 

 taken immediately afterwards, never wine or other fermented 

 drink, since these, when combined with the jaca, are poisonous." 

 lie adds that the seeds, boiled or roasted, are very pleasant 

 and that they are used, pulverized, in making biscuits. The 

 ripe fruits are often fed to cattle in Brazil. Alice R. Thompson 

 of Hawaii has found the edible portion or pulp to contain: 

 Total solids 23.20 per cent, ash 0.93, acids 0.27, protein 1.44, 

 total sugars 15.15, fat 0.45, and fiber 1.3. The seed was found 

 to contain : Total solids 50.82 per cent, ash 3.49, acids 0.16, 



2E 



