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value in propagation. The wounding or bruising of the root at 

 any given point stimulates the production of an offshoot, and 

 young plants for transplanting are produced solely in this way. 

 This mode of propagation is naturally very slow and laborious, 

 as the young shoots grow slowly, and are very sensitive to injury. 

 A small breadfruit tree, rooted and ready for planting, commands 

 a price of from one to five dollars in the Honolulu nurseries. 

 The pr'ce varies with the size and thriftiness of the young trees. 



Breadfruit roots are astringent and used medicinally by the 

 natives as a purgative; they are sometimes macerated as a 

 poultice and applied externally for various skin diseases. 



The bark on the younger twigs is clear green; on the older 

 branches it is smooth and gray. On the trunk it becomes half 

 an inch or more thick, and in color very dark brown tinged with 

 red; the surface is irregularly marked with obscure broken ridges. 

 The inner-bark is salmon-red, highly laticiferous and very fibrous; 

 this material was formerly much used by the natives of the South 

 Pacific for the manufacture of the coarser kinds of tapa or bark 

 cloth. The making of tapa from the breadfruit bark does not 

 appear to have been practiced in ancient Hawaii; perhaps because 

 the wauke, mamake, and other plants were abundant, and the Ulu 

 not so common. The tapa ulu was inferior to that of the wauke 

 (paper mulberry) both in softness and whiteness, and was used 

 by the common people, the finer sorts being reserved for the 

 nobility. The bark was taken from the young trees, and the 

 branches of old trees; the various stages in the preparation of the 

 cloth were similar to those employed in the manufacture of tapa 

 wauke. 



The breadfruit wood is a fine, bright yellow, turning darker 

 upon exposure to the air, and finally becoming dark brown. The 

 sapwood is light cream color. The wood is rather light in weight 

 and soft in texture; the grain is open and coarse. It is strong, 

 elastic, and resistant to the attacks of termites; if kept dry it is 

 quite durable; its specific gravity is 0.495. In ancient Hawaii it 

 was used for a variety of purposes by the natives, such as house 

 timbers, in the construction of the temples, etc. It was occasion- 

 ally used for canoe bodies, but was not especially satisfactory for 



