104 

 ■become crooked, straggling and ill shaped. When "bearing, 

 which takes place generally from about the sixth year, the 

 roots should te oc casionally watered moderately. The fruit 

 ripens in March and April. 



Jack Pruit, Artocarpus Integrifolia (Linn.) 

 Origin 



India, cultivated perhaps for more than two thousand 

 years, 



De script ion 



A tree with stipulate leaves like the fig tree, the 

 flowers closely packed upon the outside of large otlong spikes, 

 the male and female flowers on distinct spikes. The perianth 

 of the male is two lo"bed, enclosing a single stamen ; of the 

 female, entire and more or less adherent to adjoining perianth, 

 so that the whole grow together, and when mature form a huge 

 collective fruit, ten to sixty poimds in weight. The seeds 

 are ex-alhuminous . 



The fruit issues Tsy short stalks direct from the stem. 

 The seeds when roasted have something of the flavor of a 

 chestnut, and are eaten like it. It is a. curious circiimstance 

 in the growth of this tree, that the finest and most esteemed 

 fruits are produced from the roots "below the surface of the 

 ground and are betrayed "by the cracking of the earth above 

 them, and the effluvia issuing from the fissure ; a high price 

 is charged for fruit so produced. As the pulp has a strong 

 disagreeable smell, it is not liked much by the richer class. 



