( ns ) 
or roafted, or fometimes mixed with a little 
rice, rafpings of cocoa-nut, onion, and a 
fmall quantity of fait and turmeric. The 
bread-fruit trees flourifh for whole centuries, 
and bear their fruity which ripens by degrees, 
not only upon the thicken: branches, but 
upon the ft em itfelf, for the fpace of eight 
months together. The fruit is ufed for food 
in three different ftates of ripenefs, but cannot 
be eaten without preparation, till it arrives at 
maturity ; at which time the pulp, which 
furrounds the feeds, has a fweetifh tafte, and 
is often eaten in it's frefh ftate, after peeling 
off the rind, which is thick, and covered with 
prickles. 
The banana and plantain tree (mufa fapien- 
turn, and paradifiaca) natives of the Weft- 
Indies, have obtained the name of bread-trees 
from the fame caufe that the artocarpus has 
been fo called ; many hundred acres of them 
being cultivated in Jamaica for the ufe of the 
negroes, who are faid to prefer the fruit of the 
plantain tree, when roafted, to bread, and that 
mo ft of the native whites ufe it in the fame 
manner. The banana is alfo found in the South- 
Sea ifles, and is faid by Mr. Forfter to lofe it's 
feeds by cultivation, as the artocargus does ; 
I 2, but 
