224 



DOMESTIC BOTANY. 



David Nelson, a gardener (who had accompanied Captain 

 Cook in his third voyage), was despatched to Otaheite to 

 obtain a cargo of young trees. This being accompHshed, 

 the ship sailed from Otaheite with every prospect of the 

 undertaking terminating successfully ; but they had not long 

 left Otaheite when a mutiny broke out on board, and the 

 Captain, Nelson, and other officers, and others of the crew 

 who would not join the mutineers, were put in an open boat 

 and set adrift in mid-ocean, the nearest place where Euro- 

 pean aid could be obtained being the Island of Timor, 3618 

 miles distant, which place they reached after enduring 

 great fatigue and hardship, from the effects of which 

 Nelson did not recover, having died there in July, 1789. 

 On Captain Bligh reaching England, he was again despatched 

 on the same mission in the ship Providence^ having with him 

 Christopher Smith, a gardener from Kew, this time proving 

 successful ; and in 1793 Bread Fruit trees were 

 flourishing in Jamaica, and other West Indian Islands, and 

 soon became common in all tropical countries favourable to 

 their growth.* 



Jack Yiuii^Artocarpus integrifolius). A native of the Indian 

 and Malayan Archipelagos, where it is extensively grown 

 for the sake of the fleshy envelope of the fruit. It is not so 

 palatable to Europeans as the bread fruit ; it is about the 

 size of a large vegetable marrow, often from 12 to 18 inches 

 in length and 6 to 8 inches in diameter ; its nuts, which are 

 the true fruits, are roasted and eaten. The whole of the 

 family contains a large quantity of watery or milky juice, the 

 latter being abundant in Castilloa elastica, a tree of con- 

 siderable size, native of Cuba, Mexico, and other parts of 

 Tropical America; the juice contains a considerable quantity 

 of Caoutchouc, which is generally known in commerce by 

 the name of Mexican and "West Indian Caoutchouc, which 

 wiU be specially noticed under the Euphorbia family. 



* Full particulars of these voyages are recorded in the " Mutiny 

 of the Bounty." 



