i BREAD FRUIT. 
bright green leaves, each deeply divided into seven or nine 
spear-shaped lobes. 
We are informed, in Captain Cook's first voyage 
round the world, that the edible part of this fruit lies 
between the skin and the core ; and that it is white as 
snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread. 
It is generally used immediately when gathered; if it 
be kept more than twenty-four hours it becomes hard 
and chokey. The inhabitants of the South Sea Islands 
prepare it as food, by dividing the fruit into three or 
four parts, and roasting it in hot embers. Its taste is 
insipid, with. a slight tartness, and somewhat resembles 
that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with Jeru- 
salem artichoke (217). Of this fruit the Otaheitans 
make various messes, by putting to it either water or 
the milk of the cocoa-nut (233), then beating it to .a 
paste with a stone: pestle, and afterwards mixing it with 
ripe plantains (270), "bananas (271), or a sour paste, 
made from the bread fruit itself, called mahie. 
It continues in season eight months of the year; and 
so great is its utility in the island of Otaheite, that (ob- 
serves Captain Cook), if, in those parts where it is not 
spontaneously produced, a man plant but ten trees in 
his whole life- time, he will as completely fulfil his duty to 
his own and to future generations, as the natives of our 
less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the win- 
ter's cold, and reaping in the summer's heat, as often as 
these seasons return ; even if, after he has procured 
bread for his present household, he should convert the 
surplus into money, and lay it up for his children. 
Not only does this tree supply food, but clothing, and 
numerous other conveniences of life. The inner bark, 
which is white, .and composed of a net-like series of 
fibres, is formed into a kind of cloth. The wood is soft, 
smooth, and of yellowish colour : and is used for the 
building of boats and houses. In whatever part the 
tree is wounded, a ^glutinous milky juice issues, which, 
when boiled with cocoa-nut oil (233), is employed for 
making bird-lime, and as a cement for filling up cracks 
