a 
BREADCORN. 
whole is kneaded with a mixture of salt and leaven: 
the dough is then covered with warm cloths, and 
left to rise. In the process of fermentation, this 
dough, firm at first, becomes liquid as soup, and 
seems quite incapable of being wrought by the hand. 
To obviate this inconvenienee, the oven is heated 
while the dough is rising; and when it has attained 
a proper temperature, a tinned box is taken, furnished 
with a handle long enough to reach to the end of the 
oven: alittle water is poured into this box, which 
is then filled with dough, and covered with cabbage 
leaves and a leaf of paper. The box is then com- 
mitted to the oven, and suddenly reversed. . The 
heat of the oven prevents the dough from spreading, 
and keeps it in the form which the box has given it. 
Maize bread.—Maize bread may be made of good 
quality by a small admixture of flour. For this pur- 
pose, it should be reduced to a fine meal, —finer than 
is usual in America. It may then be mixed with one- 
third its weight of best flour, and fermented in the 
usual way. When thus prepared, the best maize 
bread is always dark coloured, and cannot be made 
much lighter than coarse wheat bread. ‘The shade, 
however, is somewhat different from that of wheat, 
as it inclines more to a yellow tint. We may be 
quite certain, however, when we see what is called 
maize bread possessed of a white colour, that it con- 
tains much more than one-third its weight of wheat 
flour mixed with it. Even when one half its weight 
of wheat flour is added to it, the dark colour, char- 
acteristic of maize, is retained. 
Potato bread.—Potatoes, mixed in various quan- 
tities with flour, make a wholesome, nutritive, and 
pleasant bread. Kliyogg—who has been styled the 
rustic Socrates —recommends, that potatoes well- 
boiled and carefully peeled, should be put into a 
kneading trough, covered with boiling water, and 
bruised till they be converted into a kind of soup of 
equal consistence throughout. A half, a third, ora 
fourth, of this soup, mixed with the flour of wheat, 
makes a bread of an excellent taste, salutary and 
nutritive. In Saxony, potatoes are prepared for 
bread in the following manner: — The largest are 
chosen, and, after being peeled, are grated very fine, 
and put into a milk pail. Cold water is then poured 
upon them, in which they are allowed to remain 
twenty-four hours. The water is then poured off, 
and fresh water is poured on them again: and this is 
repeated till the water which is drawn off be as pure 
as that taken from the spring. The potatoes are then 
put into a white linen cloth to be drained, after which 
they are spread upon a plate till dry. They are then 
reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with equal por- 
tions of wheaten flour, and with as much leaven as 
1s usually employed for the same quantity of flour. 
BREADCORN. Grain used as the staple of 
bread. The principal breadcorn of cold climates 
is barley and oats; of temperate climates, wheat 
and maize; and of hot countries, rice. 
BREAD-FRUIT TREE,—botanically Artocar- 
pus. A genus of ornamental, evergreen, fruit, and 
timber trees, of the nettle family. It abounds 
throughout the South Sea Islands, and in vari- 
ous parts of the Hast Indies; and is of great 
economical value, for various purposes, but par- 
ticularly for its fruit and its timber; and it is 
cultivated also in the West Indies. Two spe- 
cies have been introduced to the hothouses of 
Great Britain; and six other species have been 
scientifically described. The true or cut-leaved 
species, Artocarpus incisa, was introduced from 
the South Sea Islands in 1793; and it comprises 
a variety called the nut-bearing, A. 7. nucifera. 
BREAD-NUT. O19 
The Jaca tree or entire-leaved species, Artocarpus 
integrifolia, was introduced ‘from the Hast Indies 
in 1778; and it includes a variety called the 
variable -leaved, A. ¢. heterophylla. Sir W. J. 
Hooker, however, thinks that all these are only 
varieties of one species, that both cut and entire 
leaves may frequently be found on the same 
plant, and that diversities in the flavour and 
quality of the fruit probably depend upon culti- 
vation. The entire-leaved species or variety 
usually grows to the height of about 60 feet or 
one-sixth more than the cut-leaved kind; and it 
commonly has a trunk of from 8 to 12 feet in 
diameter. Some of its flowers are stameniferous, 
others pistiliferous; and both are produced on 
the same branchlet, the former chiefly on the 
sides, and the latter towards the extremity. The 
fruit is a muricated pericarp, and is very far 
from being uniform in shape. The fleshy part 
of the fruit is readily eaten by all the poor and 
middle classes of the natives, and forms a chief 
part of their food; and it is relished by some 
Kuropeans on account of its luscious sweetness, 
but, for a time, or till they become accustomed 
to it, is much disliked by others on account of 
its very strong and offensive smell. Aghastier, 
in his work on diet, says that it is apt to increase 
the secretion of bile, and that, when frequently 
eaten, it produces dyspepsia. ‘The Cingalese, on 
whose island the tree grows most plentifully, and 
attains the greatest size and perfection, use the 
fruit, at particular times of the year, as a chief 
article of their food, instead of bread and rice; 
and they also use the unripe fruit, both when 
about the size of an ostrich’s egg and when about 
the size of a cocoa nut, either in a pickled state, 
or cut into slices and boiled, or fried in palm oil. | 
The fruit of another Indian species, Artocarpus 
pubescens, is also eaten much by the natives ; and 
it has the singular property of causing a diar- 
rhoea, which is cured by the root and bark of its 
own tree. When the fruit of Artocarpus integri- 
folva lies rotting. under the tree, it emits an ex- 
ceedingly disgusting odour, and affords support 
to hundreds of curculionide, staphylinidez, and 
forficule. In Amboyna, the bats greedily devour 
the fruit; and, by passing its seeds unchanged, 
greatly extend the propagation of the tree. 
The sap or milk of this species is used for making 
a very viscid birdlime. The timber, when ex- 
posed for a considerable time to the air, acquires 
an appearance very similar to mahogany ; and it 
is used both for constructing houses and making 
furniture. i 
BREAD - NUT, — botanically Brosimum. A 
genus of ornamental, evergreen, West Indian 
fruit-shrubs of the nettle tribe. Two species, 
alicastrum and spurium, were introduced to Bri- 
tish hothouses from Jamaica, during the latter 
half of last century; and both of these usually 
grow to the height of about six feet. Another 
species, microcarpum, was introduced about eight 
years ago. The very remarkable vegetable pro- 
