POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
353 
and variety. The bread-fruit^ artocmyus^ is the 
principal^ being produced in greater abundance, and 
used more generally, than any other. The tree on which 
it grows is large and umbrageous; the bark is light- 
coloured and rough \ the trunk of the tree is sometimes 
two or three feet in diameter, and rises from twelve to 
twenty feet yrithout a branch. The outline of the tree is 
remarkably beautiful, the leaves are broad, and indented 
somewhat like those of the fig-tree, frequently twelve or 
eighteen inches long, and rather thick, of a dark green 
colour, with a surface glossy as that of the richest 
evergreens. 
The fruit is generally circular or oval, and is, on an 
average, six inches in diameter; it is covered with a 
roughish rind, which is marked with small square or 
lozenge-shaped divisions, having each a small elevation in 
the centre, and is at first of a light pea-green colour, 
subsequently it changes to brown, and when fully ripe 
assumes a rich yellowish tinge. It is attached to the small 
branches of the tree by a short thick stalk, and hangs 
either singly, or in clusters of two or three together. 
There is nothing very attractive or pleasing in the 
blossom; but a fine stately tree, clothed with dark 
shining leaves, and loaded with many hundreds of large 
light green or yellowish coloured fruit, is one of the 
most splendid and beautiful objects to be met with, 
among the rich and diversified scenery of a Tahitian 
landscape. Two or three of these trees are often 
seen growing around the rustic native cottage, and 
embowering it with their interwoven and prolific 
branches. The tree is propagated by shoots from the 
root, it bears in about five years, and will probably con¬ 
tinue bearing for fifty. 
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