88 
PLANTS AND INSECTS 
Florida there are orange-trees, lemon-trees, grapefruit-trees, the kum- 
quats, or Chinese oranges, and loquots, which resemble our apricot. 
It is a very beautiful sight to see these hundreds of trees blooming and 
bearing fruit at the same time. 
Orange-trees grow to a great age. They often bear abundant fruit 
at from fifty to eighty years. Indeed, there are some trees whose age is 
supposed to be over one hundred years, which still yield a golden crop. 
When the fruit is meant to be exported to cold climates, it is gathered 
long before it is ripe, and for that reason the orange never has the same 
delicious flavor that it has When picked from the tree and eaten. 
— Exchange . 
BREAD-FRUIT 
T HE bread-fruit is a very common product of the West Indies now, 
though not originally native here. Its importation occurred in this 
way: Over one hundred years ago King George III of Engand sent a 
ship to the South Sea Islands 
for a cargo of these young trees, 
which he desired brought to the 
British colonies in the West 
Indies. About three hundred 
fifty trees were thus trans¬ 
planted in Jamaica, with the re¬ 
sult that now these beautiful 
trees are to be seen everywhere 
here. 
The trees grow to the 
height of twenty or thirty feet. 
The branches are wide-spread¬ 
ing branches and are covered 
with conspicuously large, shiny, 
green leaves. As the leaf-buds 
develop, they look very much 
like bright-shining candles among the brilliant green foliage, so bright 
are they. As each bright sheath unfolds, the new leaf appears, and 
sometimes a flower-bud may be seen within also. It is this flower-bud 
which finally produces the fruit. If you will look closely at the drawing 
