^ 

 ^ 



t 



K 



155 



flowers, arranged on a central fleshy column or spike. Rumph- 

 ins' reports the tree wild in Banda. At Tahiti' they reckon no 



less than thirty varieties. 



Wilkes^ says 



there are twenty varieties, and in the Feejee Islands nine differ- 

 fe ent kinds distinguished by fruit of different sizes and shapes, and 



the figure of the leaves. Peschal^ says that twenty-seven trees, 

 which would about cover an English acre with their shade, 

 are sufficient for the support, during the eight months of fruit- 

 ^ bearing of from ten to twelve people. 



The earliest record of the breadfruit is by the writer of the 



account of Mendana's' voyage to the Marquesas Islands in 1595. 



It was again noted by Dampier,^ in i688, w^ho in his description 



^ says there is neither seed nor stone in the inside. Seeding forms 



are, however, described by Sonnerat,^ and by Rumphius/ the 

 latter figuring the Socctis granosus, which contains seed, and 

 the Socciis lanosus, whose cavity contained no seed except in one 

 variety which contained a few seed. Forster,'' 1/86, makes two 

 varieties, one seedless, the other seed bearing. Of the first, he 



w 



notes five different kinds, and of the second he remarks that on 



-- L 



account of the superiority of the seedless kind, it has become 

 I neglected. Thunberg,^° in 1779, says the fruit, the size of a 



child's head, sometimes has abortive seeds and sometimes none. 

 \ ** Meyen" says the fruit generally contains seeds, and that by cul- 



ture a number of seedless varieties have been formed. The seeds 

 are said by Wilkes'^ to be often abortive in Tahiti. This tree 



I 



came to Jamaica in February, 1793, and in 18 14, Lunan'^ says 

 that the varieties in Jamaica, save one, are seedless, and this ex- 



1 Rumph. amb. r, p, 113, pi. 33. 



2 Enc. Brit, xviii. 280. 



3 U. S. Ex. Exped. ii. 121 ; iii. 333. 



4 Races of Man. 156. 



5 Enc. Brit, xviii. 281. 

 6Dampier, Voy. i. c. 10, 



7 Sonnerat, Voy. 99, t. 57-60. 



8 Rumpliius, amb, 1, 110, t. 32. 



gForster, PI, esc. 1786, p. 23, See also obs, p. 179. 

 loThunberg, Phil, Trans. 1779, vol.. 69, p. 465. 



11 Meyen, Outlines of Ceog. of PI, 1S46, pp. 322, '^i^ 



12 U. S. Ex. Exped. ii. 50. 



13 Lunan. Ilort. Jam. 1814, i. 113. 



■'ly^ 



