02 TRAVELS LN THE EAST IKBIAK ARCHIPELAGO. 



ti-oduce it into India and also into tlie West Indies. 

 Its Malay name durimi comes from dwH^ a tbom^ and 

 is thus applied on account of the sharp, thorny points 

 of the pyramidal tubercles that cover its shell The 

 fact, that the Malay name is the one used wherever 

 the fruit is known, indicates that it originated in a 

 Malay country, and this view is strengthened by the 

 circumstance that, while I was crossing Sumatra, I 

 passed through large forests mostly composed of 

 these trees in the high lands near the sources of the 

 Palembaug Eiver. 



Another far-famed fruit is the bread-fruit. It grows 

 on a tree, the Artocarpm ijicisa, which attains a height 

 of forty or fifty feet. It will be noticed at once by the 

 stranger, on account of its enormous, sharply-lobed 

 leaves, which ai'e fi-equently a foot wide and a foot 

 and a half long. The fruit has neai'ly the form of a 

 melon, and is attached by its stem directly to the 

 trunk or Hmbs. It is regarded of little value by the 

 Malays, but farther east, in the Society Islands, and 

 other pai'ts of the South Sea, it fui-nishes the natives 

 with their chief sustenance. Just before it is ripe it 

 is cut into slices and fried, and eaten v^dth a thick, 

 black molasses, obtained by boiling down the sap of 

 the gomuti-palm. When prepared in this manner it 

 tastes somewhat like a potato, except that it is very 

 fibrous. The seeds of this fruit in the South Sea 

 are said, when roasted, to be as nice as chestnuts, but 

 I never saw the Malays make any use of them. From 

 the Pacific Islands it has been introduced into the 

 West Indies and tropical America. Another species 

 of this genus, the A, inkgrifoUa^ bears the huge 



