CLASS XXI.--MONOECIA. ---- 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, which, 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 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 Jerusalem 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 _mahié_. It continues in season eight months of the year; and so great is its utility in the island of Otaheite, that (observes 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 winter'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 in such vessels as are intended for holding water. Some parts of the _flowers_ serve as tinder in the lighting of fire; and the leaves are used for wrapping up food, and for other purposes.