town of Vindelicia (Ptolemy): No. 30.

Now Alziburg, in Bavaria, on the Danube, below In- gelfadt (Aventinus): but Cluverius supposes it to be Leibnau, on the Saltzbach, below Lauffen, in the archbishopric of Saltzburg.

Artoocarpus (from μέλις bread, and καρπός fruit), the Bread-fruit Tree: A genus of the monandra order, belonging to the monocota class of plants. It has a cylindric amentum or catkin, which thickens gradually, and is covered with flowers; the male and female in a different amentum. In the male, the calyx is two-valved, and the corolla is wanting. In the female, there is no calyx nor corolla; the stylus is one, and the drupa is many-celled.

Though this tree has been mentioned by many voyagers, particularly by Dampier, by Rumphius, and by Lord Anson, yet very little notice seems to have been taken of it till the return of Captain Wallis from the South Seas, and since that time by others who have touched at Otaheite and some countries in the East Indies. Captain Dampier relates, that in Guam, one of the Ladrones islands, "there is a certain fruit called the bread fruit, growing on a tree as big as our large apple-trees, with dark leaves. The fruit is round, and grows on the boughs like apples, of the bigness of a good penny loaf: when ripe, it turns yellow, soft, and sweet; but the natives take it green, and bake it in an oven till the rind is black: this they scrape off, and eat the inside, which is soft and white, like the inside of new-baked bread, having neither seed nor stone; but if it is kept above 24 hours it is harsh. As this fruit is in season eight months in the year, the natives feed upon no other sort of bread during that time. They told us that all the Ladrones islands had plenty of it. I never heard of it in any other place."

Rumphius, after describing the tree, observes, that "the fruit is shaped like a heart, and increases to the size of a child's head. Its surface or rind is thick, green, and covered everywhere with warts of a quadrangular or hexagonal figure, like cut diamonds, but without points. The more flat and smooth these warts are, the fewer seeds are contained in the fruit, and the greater is the quantity of pith, and that of a more glutinous nature. The internal part of the rind, or peel, consists of a fleshy substance, full of twisted fibres, which have the appearance of fine wool; these adhere to, and in some measure form it. The fleshy part of this fruit becomes softer towards the middle, where there is a small cavity formed without any nuts or seeds, except in one species, which has but a small number, and this sort is not good, unless it is baked or prepared some other way: but if the outward rind be taken off, and the fibrous flesh dried and afterwards boiled with meat as we do cabbage, it has then the taste of artichoke bottoms. The inhabitants of Amboyna dress it in the liquor of cocoa-nut: but they prefer it roasted on coals till the outward part or peel is burnt. They afterwards cut it into pieces, and eat it with the milk of the cocoa-nut. Some people make fritters of it, or fry it in oil; and others, as the Sumatrians, dry the internal soft part, and keep it to use instead of bread with other food. It affords a great deal of nourishment, and is very satisfying, therefore proper for hardworking people: and being of a gentle astringent quality, is good for persons of a laxative habit of body." It is more nourishing boiled in our manner with fat meat than roasted on coals. The milky juice which diffuses from the trunk, boiled with the cocoa-nut oil, makes a very strong bird-lime. This tree is to be found on the eastern parts of Sumatra, and in the Malay language is called foccus and foccum capar. It grows likewise about the town of Bantam in Java, and in Ballega and Madura, and is known there by the name of foccum."

In Anon's voyage we are informed, "that the rima, or bread-fruit tree, is common in all the Ladrones islands and some of the Philippines. It is somewhat larger than our apple-tree, and bears a broad dark-coloured leaf with five indentures on each side. The fruit hangs on boughs like apples; and is of the size of a penny loaf, with a thick tough rind, which when full ripe turns yellow. The natives gather it before it is quite ripe, and bake it till the crust is pretty black; then they rasp it, and there remains a pretty loaf, with a tender yellow crust, and the crumb of it is soft and sweet as a new baked roll: it is without any seeds or stones. This fruit the inhabitants enjoy for about seven months; during which they never eat any other kind of bread: but they are obliged to bake it every day; for when it grows a little stale, it becomes harsh and husky, somewhat like the potato-bread made in the west of England. There is, however, a remedy for this; which is cutting the loaf into slices when it is new, and drying it in the sun, by which it is changed into the pleasantest rusk that can be eaten."

Captain Cook, in his voyage, observes, that this fruit not only serves as a substitute for bread among the inhabitants of Otaheite* and the neighbouring islands, but also, variously dressed, composes the principal part of their food. It grows on a tree that is about the size of a middling oak; its leaves are frequently a foot and an half long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those of the fig-tree, which they resemble in colour and consistence, and in the exuding of a milky juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the size and shape of a new-born child's head; and the surface is reticulated†, not much unlike a truffle; it is covered with a thin skin, and has a core about as big as the handle of a small knife. The eatable part lies between the skin and the core; it is as white as snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread; it must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided into three or four parts; its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke. This fruit is also cooked in a kind of oven, which renders it soft, and something like a boiled potato; not quite so farinaceous as a good one, but more so than those of the middling sort. Of the bread-fruit they also make three dishes, by putting either water or the milk of the cocoa-nut to it, then beating it to a paste with a stone pestle, and afterwards mixing it with ripe plantains, bananas, or the four paste which they call mahie.

The mahie, which is likewise made to serve as a succedaneum for ripe bread-fruit before the season comes on, is thus made: The fruit of the bread-tree is gathered just before it is perfectly ripe; and being laid in heaps, is closely covered with leaves: in this state it undergoes a fermentation, and becomes disagreeably sweet; the core is then taken out entire, which is done by gently pulling out the stalk, and the rest of the fruit is thrown into a hole which is dug for that purpose generally in the houses, and neatly lined in the bottom and sides with grass: the whole is then covered with leaves and heavy stones laid upon them; in this state it undergoes a second fermentation, and becomes four, after which it will suffer no change for many months. It is taken out of the hole as it is wanted for use; and being made into balls, it is wrapped up in leaves and baked: after it is dressed, it will keep five or six weeks. It is eaten both cold and hot; and the natives seldom make a meal without it, though to Europeans the taste is as disagreeable as that of a pickled olive, generally is the first time it is eaten. The fruit itself is in season eight months in the year, and the mahie supplies the inhabitants during the other four.

To procure this principal article of their food (the bread-fruit), costs these happy people no trouble or labour except climbing up a tree: the tree which produces it does not indeed grow spontaneously; but if a man plants ten of them in his life-time, which he may do in about an hour, he will as completely fulfil his duty to his own and future generations, as the native of our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter, 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 a surplus into money, and lay it up for his children.

There are two species of artocarpus, viz. the incisus, with gashed leaves; and the integrifolia, with entire leaves. There is also said to be another distinction, in that which bears fruit with stones or seeds, and that in which the fruit has none. The parts of fructification of that tree which bears the fruit without stones are defective. The amentum, or catkin, which contains the male parts, never expands. The styli, or female part of the fruit, are likewise deficient. From which it follows, that there can be no stones or seeds, and therefore that this tree can be propagated only by suckers or layers; although it is abundantly evident, that it must originally have proceeded from the seed-bearing bread-fruit tree. Instances of this kind we sometimes find in European fruits; such as the barberry, and the Corinthian grape, from Zante commonly called currants, which can therefore be increased only by layers and cuttings. Dr Solander was assured by the oldest inhabitants of Otaheite and the adjoining islands, that they well remember there was formerly plenty of the seed bearing bread-fruit; but they had been neglected upon account of the preference given to the bread-fruit without seeds, which they propagate by suckers.