77/1? Breadfruit Blossom. 123 



testa membranacea ; albumen o ; embrj^o rectus v. incurvus, cotyledonibus crasso- 

 carnosis aequalibus v. valle insequalibus, radicula brevissima supera. — Arbores lacte- 

 scentes. Folia alterna, ampla, coriacea, pennivenia, integerrima v. pinnatim pauci- 

 loba, rarius pinnatim co-foliolata. Stipulse laterales, caeterum variae. Peduuculi 

 axillares, solitarii, brevissimi v. longiusculi. Flores parvi, uumerosissimi, receptacu- 

 lum stepius carnosum breve v. elongatum undique obtegentes. Syncarpia parva 

 mediocria v. maxima, fructibus ssepe paucis perfectis prope centrum S3'ncarpii im- 

 mersis, periantbiis tamen omnibus tam sterilibus quam fertilibus apice ssepius 

 aequaliter auctis, nunc obtusissimis v. umbonatis mutua pressione angulatis S3'ncar- 

 pium extus areolatum v. perfecte continuum formantibus, nunc lineari-elongatis sjm- 

 carpium echinatum efficientibus. Achsenia intra perianthia v. locellos syncarpii libera- 

 Two of the more than fort}- species have long been cultivated in the Pacific 

 region, the Jack and the Breadfruit, the latter in many varieties. This alone has 

 interest in the present study, although several other species are used for their fibre in 

 India and the Malay Peninsula. 



A. incisa, native Ulii. — A tree 40-60 ft. high and spreading; the roots in the 

 soft moist soil which it prefers often exserted, forming a network on the ground. 

 Leaves coriaceous, more than a foot in length, pinnatifid with acute or somewhat ob- 

 tuse lobes. Stipules 2, free, very large, rolled round the bud and imbricate, soon 

 caducous. Flowers: cJ , thick, oblong, somewhat flattened: ?, flowers on large glo- 

 bose receptacles, which are at first covered hy two large spathaceous bracts, the 

 latter terminal. 



The Breadfruit was as close a companion of the Polynesians in their wander- 

 ings as the waoke. The Hawaiian Islands were the limit of its growth on the north, 

 and we have already seen how its companion, the waoke, was brought to New Zealand 

 by the Maori immigrants five or six centuries ago, orAy to be kept alive with great 

 care, and finally to die out of the uufavorable climate. Pei-haps they brought the 

 breadfruit also in some of the canoes, but if they did it must soon have perished so 

 far below the southern limit. On the Hawaiian group there is but one variet}^, seed- 

 less, and propagated by suckers,'*^ while in the southern islands there are several. 

 Among the Hawaiians, again, it was by no means so important an article of food as 

 it was farther south and west; they never preserved it, as in Micronesia and elsewhere, 

 and the season was short. Fine trees were found all over the inhabited parts of 

 Hawaii, and at Lahaina, on Maui, were as fine trees fort}' 3'ears ago as any I have 



''While there is but one botanical variety, every one who has eaten man)' knows that tliere is great diffei'ence 

 in the quality of the fruits, also a marked difference in the shape of these fruits, the oblong ones being generally 

 preferred. 



