BREAD FRUIT. 203 
Although salep might be procured in great abun- 
dance in our own country, we import nearly the whole 
of what we use from the Levant, and generally in oval 
pieces of yellowish white colour, somewhat clear and 
pellucid, and of almost horny substance. When these, 
or the powder prepared from them, are put into boiling 
water,, they dissolve into a thick mucilage. 
With the Turks, salep has great celebrity,, on ac- 
count of the restorative qualities which it is supposed to 
possess. It is much recommended as nutritive food for 
persons recovering from illness ; and, in particular, as 
a part of the stores of every ship about to sail into 
distant climates. It not only possesses the property of 
yielding an invaluable nutriment, and, in a great mea- 
sure, of concealing the saline taste of sea-water, but is 
likewise of essential service against the sea-scurvy. 
When it is stated that one ounce of this powder and an 
ounce of portable soup, dissolved in two quarts of boil- 
ing water, will form a jelly capable of affording suste- 
nance to one man for a day, the utility of salep will be 
further seen as a means of preventing famine at sea for 
an infinitely longer time than any other food of equal 
bulk. 
CLASS XXI. MONGECIA. 
MONANDRIA. 
220. The BREAD FRUIT is a large globular berry of 
pale green colour, about the size of a child's head, marked on 
the surface, with irregular six-sided depressions, and containing 
a white and somewhat fibrous pulp, zchich, when ripe, becomes 
juicy and yellow. 
The tree that produces it ( Artocarpus incisa, Fig. 57) grows 
wild in Otaheite and other islands of the South Seas, is about 
forty feet high, has large and spreading branches, and large 
