34 



of prime importance are the breadfruit and the jakfruit. The 

 genus is characterized by copious latex; large, thick, alternate 

 leaves, either entire or pinnate; and deciduous axillary stipules. 

 The plants are monoecious, and the two kinds of flowers are on 

 distinct receptacles. The staminate flowers occur in long, 

 crowded spikes; each perigone has t^vo to four lobes and a single 

 exserted central stamen. The pistillate flowers are massed in 

 more or less globular heads; the floret has a tubular, obovate, or 

 linear perigone, and a simple,, uniovulate ovary. The style 

 protrudes through the narrow aperture of the perigone and bears 

 a spathulate stigma, which is sometimes 2-3-fid. The ovule 

 is anatropous. The fruit is a large syncarpium, formed of the 

 fleshy receptacle and greatly enlarged, fleshy, aggregated peri- 

 anths and carpels (anthocarps) . The tips of the anthocarps are 

 hardened , truncate, pyramidal or spinous. The seeds are without 

 albumen; the embryo is straight or curved, with thick, fleshy, 

 equal or unequal cotyledons. In general the genus is distinctive 

 of tropical regions possessing a uniformly humid atmosphere, 

 moist soil, and good drainage. 



The breadfruit is by far the most important member of the 

 genus, outranking in economic value and in geographic range all 

 of the others combined. It is one of the world's great trees, and 

 for beauty, unique features, and human interest, has a place 

 beside the orange tree and the coco palm. In the botanic and 

 semi-technical literature it is designated as A . incisa L.f., although 

 its correct scientific name is A. communis Forst. The confusion 

 in nomenclature has been carefully worked out by Baum,* who 

 states: 



"The genus Artocarpus was first described in 1776 by G. 

 and G. J. R. Forster in 'Characteres Generum Plantarum,' a 

 work written as a result of their botanical studies made during 

 Captain Cook's second voyage into the Pacific and round the 

 world between 1772 and 1775. The combination Artocarpus 

 communis was given in this work for the breadfruit tree, a name 

 which, according to nomenclatorial rules, must replace the 



* H. E. Baum, The Name of the Breadfruit, Science, N.S., i8: 439. 1903, see 

 also A. Richter, Botan. Centralbl., 60: 169-70. 1894. 



