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.
As the climate of the South Sea Islands is considered not much to differ
from that of the West Indies, it was (about thirty years ago) thought
desirable that some of the trees should be transferred, in a growing state,
to our islands there. Consequently, his Majesty's ship the Bounty, in 1787,
sailed for this purpose to the South Seas, under the command of Lieutenant,
afterwards Admiral Bligh. But a fatal mutiny of the ship's crew prevented
the accomplishment of this benevolent design. The commander of the vessel,
however, returned in safety to his country; and a second expedition under
the same person, and for the same purpose, was fitted out in the year 1791.
Captain Bligh arrived in safety at Otaheite, and, after an absence from
England of about eighteen months, landed in Jamaica with 352 bread
fruit-trees, in a living state, having left many others at different places
in his passage thither. From Jamaica these trees were transferred to other
islands; but the negroes, having a general and long established
predilection for the plantain (270), the bread fruit is not much relished
by them. Where, however, it has not been generally introduced as an article
of food, it is used as a delicacy; and whether employed as bread, or in the
form of pudding, it is considered highly palatable by the European
inhabitants.
221. _The JACK FRUIT is a species of bread fruit that is grown in Malabar
and other parts of the East Indies._
_The tree which produces this fruit_ (Artocarpus integrifolia) _differs
from the common bread fruit-tree, in having the leaves entire, each about
a span in length, oblong, blunt, serrated at the edges, bright green, and
very smooth on the upper surface, paler beneath, and clad with stiff
hairs._
Few of the fruits even of eastern climates are so large as this. Its weight
is sometimes upwards of thirty pounds; and it generally contains betwixt
two and three hundred nuts or seeds. These are each about three times as
large as an almond, of somewhat oval shape, blunt at one end, sharp at the
other, and a little flatted on the sides. Some varieties of the fruit,
however, contain no nuts.
The season in which the jack fruit is in perfection is about the month of
December. Though esteemed by many persons, it is so difficult of digestion,
that great caution is requisite in eating it. The unripe fruit is sometimes
pickled; it is sometimes cut into slices, and boiled as a vegetable for the
table; and sometimes fried in palm-oil. The _nuts_ are eaten roasted, and
the _wood_ serves for building materials.