in Chemistry and Manufactures, an alloy of copper and zinc. This name, however, has not been exclusively applied to the alloy of these metals; for the gun-metal, which has been also called brass, is an alloy of copper with tin. The same alloy, with more tin, is used in machinery, and is preferred to the alloy of copper and zinc, on account of its greater hardness.

It appears from the analysis of the brass of the ancients, that it was an alloy of copper and tin. A small portion of tin gives to copper great hardness, and renders it capable of bearing much greater resistance. A larger portion of tin gives increased hardness, but is less fitted to bear a straining resistance, on account of its brittleness. Its elasticity is very great, which fits it for bells. In this state it is called bell-metal; with a still greater proportion of tin, it forms an alloy employed for the mirrors of reflecting telescopes. The alloy of copper with tin is easily distinguished from that with zinc from the agreeable colour of the latter, which varies with the proportions of the metals. Pinchbeck has the least proportion of zinc. Common brass has more zinc, and the gold-coloured alloy called Prince's metal, contains a still greater proportion of zinc. An alloy of copper with a very large proportion of zinc is used for the common white metal buttons.

These various alloys of copper with tin and zinc forming the different kinds of brass, are to be considered as chemical compounds, and, of course, governed by the same laws of definite proportions which belong to the more conspicuous compounds.

On these principles, which cannot be doubted, we have an unerring rule for uniting these and other metals in the best proportions, the weights of their atoms being previously known. See the article ATOMIC THEORY in this Supplement.

The weight of the atom of copper being 8, tin 7.35, and zinc 4; the following table will exhibit the proportions of the various alloys, expressed in atoms, and their proportions by weight, the third column pointing out the colour and character of the resulting compound. CZ and T are to represent the atoms of the metals respectively.

<table> <tr> <th>Atoms.</th> <th>Proportions by Weight</th> <th>Character and Colour of the Compounds.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>C+Z</td> <td>1 to 2</td> <td>The best proportions for common brass.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C+2Z</td> <td>1 to 1</td> <td>The alloy called Prince's Metal, of a beautiful gold colour.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C+3Z</td> <td>2 to 3</td> <td>Of a paler yellow, very little malleable.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C+4Z</td> <td>1 to 2</td> <td>Still of a lighter colour, and not malleable.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C+5Z</td> <td>2 to 5</td> <td>Yellowish white and brittle.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>C+6Z</td> <td>1 to 3</td> <td>Very brittle, nearly white.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2C+Z</td> <td>4 to 1</td> <td>A very malleable brass used in watch-work.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>3C+Z</td> <td>6 to 1</td> <td>An alloy much harder than copper and inclining to its colour.</td> </tr> </table>

COMPOUNDS OF TIN WITH COPPER.

<table> <tr> <th>Atoms.</th> <th>Proportions by Weight</th> <th>Character and Colour of the Compounds.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>T+C</td> <td>11 to 12</td> <td>A very brittle and rather white alloy.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2T+C</td> <td>11 to 6</td> <td>Still more brittle and more white.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>3T+C</td> <td>11 to 4</td> <td>Very white, used for speculums.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>4T+C</td> <td>11 to 3</td> <td>Coarse-grained and too brittle for any purpose.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+2C</td> <td>11 to 24</td> <td>A yellowish alloy, very hard and sonorous.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+3C</td> <td>11 to 36</td> <td>Bell metal.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+4C</td> <td>11 to 48</td> <td>A very hard alloy used for some culinary vessels.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+5C</td> <td>11 to 60</td> <td>Softer but not malleable.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+6C</td> <td>11 to 72</td> <td>Still increases in softness and of a yellower colour.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+7C</td> <td>11 to 84</td> <td>Used for some purposes in machinery.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+8C</td> <td>11 to 96</td> <td>An alloy used for cannon.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T+9C</td> <td>11 to 108</td> <td>More common for cannon and machinery, and used for bronze statues.</td> </tr> </table>

Hitherto the proportions of these alloys have depended upon the caprice of workmen, obtained by numerous trials; and what confirms the law of definite proportions, is proved by the necessity of adhering to such fixed proportions, ascertained by trials. By attending to the stages of composition pointed out in the above table, the most striking and proper compounds will be produced, without the trouble of trying. Any proportions intermediate will, doubtless, be marked by defective colour, irregular crystallization, or imperfect malleability, in such as are expected to be so.

Although the most direct way of forming these different kinds of brass is by immediately combining the metals together, one of them, which is most properly called brass, was manufactured long before zinc, one of its component parts, was known in its metallic form. The ore of the latter metal was cemented with sheets of copper, charcoal being present. The zinc was formed and united with the copper, without becoming visible in a distinct form. The same method is still practised for making brass, which we are about to describe.

The materials used in making brass are, copper in Brass: small rounded masses produced by passing the melt-making metal through an appropriate vessel into water, in which state it is, called shot copper, and calamine, an ore of zinc. This latter substance is a carbonate of zinc, often containing some oxyd of iron, which gives it a reddish appearance. As it is chiefly found with lead, the lumps frequently contain more or less gallena, which requires to be separated by the same means employed for purifying lead ore. The calamine is first reduced to powder, and the lead is then separated by washing. When the calamine is separated, reduced to powder, and sifted, it is heated upon the hearth of a reverberatory furnace. This expels the volatile matter, which is principally water Brass, and carbonic acid. What remains is principally oxyd of zinc, abounding with some earthy matter, and probably much carbonic acid, which is not all expelled by the heat. The calamine thus prepared, charcoal powder, and copper, are the materials to be operated upon. The proportion in which they are mixed together, are equal weights of copper and prepared calamine, and \( \frac{7}{10} \) their weight of powdered charcoal.

This mixture, intimately blended, is compressed into a crucible of the form of fig. 3. Plate XXXVI.* One of these crucibles holds about 100 lbs. of brass, when the process is finished; but as this consists of the pure copper and zinc, the pot, when charged, will contain of copper 66.3 lbs., of calamine 63. lbs., and of charcoal powder 13 lbs. When the crucible is filled, the contents should be covered with a mixture of clay sand and horse-dung, in order to defend the metals and charcoal from the action of the air. When this covering is strictly attended to, less charcoal powder might be employed, and a larger dose of the other ingredients might be put in its place, but it is generally the most defective part of the process. Having charged the pots, we will now describe the furnace which has to receive them.

Fig. 1. Plate XXXVI.* is a plan of the furnace. The part AB is taken at the level EF, showing the opening into the furnace on the ground floor at a and b; c and d are horizontal flues leading to the chimney f, and can be cut off from the same by the dampers seen in the dark part of the flue. CD, in the same figure, is a plan on the level GH, where the pots rest upon the cast iron plate on bottom x, y.

Fig. 2. is an elevation and section of the same furnace. AB shows a front view of the pyramidal chimney, and the archway opening into it. CD is a section of the same, through the middle of the fire-place II. R,P,Q, is a vaulted passage going across the building, and open at both ends, for the admission of air, which passes through the openings in the arch, through the fires. The bottom of the furnace is not a common grate, but a thick plate of cast metal, perforated with holes for the air to pass through; one hole being between each pot, as they are seen arranged in fig. 1. at I, I, and also in the section at x, y. When the pots are placed upon the plate, the fire is not placed immediately upon them, as it would not only derange them, but it would displace the covering. To prevent this, the pots are first covered by some dried heath, or common brambles. This lying on the pots, defends them for a time, when the fuel is thrown in. By the time the brambles are consumed, the coal will have coked upon the pots, and will act as a defence for the rest of the process. The fire is kept up from twelve to twenty hours at the Cheudle Brass Works in Staffordshire, where these drawings were taken from. They cast twice in the twenty-four hours.

The melted brass, after the refuse is skimmed off, is cast into ingots, if sold for melting over again, and into plates, if intended to be rolled into slucts, or made into wire. The plates are cast between large blocks of Cornwall stone. The lower stone, is fixed, and the face made even and smooth, by filling up the recesses of the ruff stone with fine sand. The upper stone is similarly prepared, and is suspended over the fixed one. The height and breadth of the place to receive the metal is limited by iron bars laid on the lower stone. The upper stone is then let down upon the bars. The lower stone is a little longer than the upper one, and projects to the front. Being a little higher in that part, it forms a lip, or mouth-piece, to pour the metal into. The flat sides of the cast plate are therefore bounded by the surface of the stones, and the edges of the same by the bars above-mentioned. The ingot moulds are recesses in blocks of cast-iron, open on one side.

The most certain and correct method of forming brass and the other compounds expressed in the table above-given, is by immediately uniting the metals in given weights. It should, however, be observed, that it will be found difficult to introduce zinc into melted copper. The best way of uniting it with copper, in the first instance, will be to introduce the copper in thin slips to the melted zinc, till the alloy requires a tolerable heat to fuse it, and then to unite this alloy with the melted copper.

BREAD-FRUIT. Among the more valuable products of the warmer climates and the fertile islands of the southern Pacific Ocean, is to be ranked the bread-fruit, or Artocarpus incisa of botanists. Nature has favoured the tropical regions, and those countries in their vicinity, with inexhaustible quantities of the choicest vegetables, while the inhabitants of the north are restricted to shrivelled berries and meagre roots; and, if they have obtained a supply, always precarious, of some of the finer fruits, it is the result of patience, skill, and industry.

Ever since Europeans frequented the Eastern History of world in commercial enterprise, it is probable that its discovery was known to the natives before the time they were acquainted with the bread-fruit. How, indeed, could its properties be unknown to Quirós, who visited Otaheite so long ago as the year 1606? Yet the English navigator Dampier seems the first of the Europeans whose notice was particularly directed towards it, during his circumnavigation in the year 1688; and he expresses himself in these words: "The bread-fruit, as we call it, grows on a large tree, as big and high as our largest apple trees. It hath a spreading head, full of branches, and dark leaves. The fruit grows on the boughs like apples; it is as big as a penny-loaf, when the wheat is at five shillings the bushel. It is of a round shape, and hath a thick tough rind. When the fruit is ripe, it is yellow and soft, and the taste is sweet and pleasant. The natives of Guam use it for bread. They gather it, when full grown, while it is green and hard; then they bake it in an oven, which scorcheth the rind, and makes it black; but they scrape off the outside black crust, and there remains a tender thin crust; and the inside is soft, tender, and white, like the crumbs of a penny-loaf. There is neither seed nor stone in the inside, but all of a firm substance like bread. It must be eaten new, for if it be kept above twenty four hours, it becomes dry and eats harsh and choky; but it is very pleasant before it is too stale. This fruit lasts in season eight months in the year, during which time the natives eat no other sort of food of bread kind. I did never see of this fruit anywhere but here (Guam). The natives told us that

PLATE XXXVI.*

Fig. 3.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 1.

Scale of Feet.

Published by A. Constable & Co. Edin. 1817. Engr. by W. Archibald. Edin. there is plenty of this fruit growing on the rest of the Ladrome islands, and I did never hear of it anywhere else." The bread-fruit, however, is found in still greater profusion, and in equal perfection, on many of the groups of islands scattered throughout the South Pacific Ocean; nor is it confined to them exclusively, but their soil and climate seem to correspond more intimately with the conditions of its vegetation.

There are two leading species of this plant, which are characterized by the presence or absence of seeds; the latter being the preferable kind, and that which is cultivated more carefully for its produce. The natives of the South Sea Islands maintain, however, that eight different species, or rather varieties, may be distinguished, and for which they have the following names: Patteah, Eroroo, Awanna, Mi-re, Oree, Powerro, Appeere, Rowdeah. The leaf of the first, fourth, and eighth, differs from that of the rest; the fourth being more sinuated, and the eighth having a large broad leaf, not at all sinuated. In the first, also, the fruit is rather larger, and of a more oblong form, while in the last it is round, and not above half the size of the others. European observers, however, do not seem, in general, disposed to recognise these as essential distinctions, although they admit other varieties.

As Dampier observes, the bread-fruit is a large tree, growing to the height of forty feet or more. It is thick in the stem, and has a luxuriant foliage. The trunk is upright, the wood soft, smooth, and yellowish; and wherever the tree is wounded, a glutinous fluid exudes. The branches form an ample head, almost globular; the leaves are eighteen inches long, and eleven broad, resembling those of the oak, or the fig tree, from their deep sinuosities. The younger leaves, like all the more tender plants of the tree, are glutinous to the touch. The male-flowers are among the upper leaves, and the female flowers at the ends of the twigs. But it is the fruit which constitutes the value of the plant, and this is a very large berry, according to botanists, with a reticulated surface, resembling a cocoa-nut or melon in size and form, nine inches in length. It is filled with a white farinaceous fibrous pulp, which becomes juicy and yellow when the fruit is ripe; and the edible portion lies between the skin, which is green, and a core in the centre, which is about an inch in diameter.

During a considerable portion of the year, the bread-fruit affords the chief sustenance of the Society Islanders. It is prepared after different fashions, and its taste depends in a great measure on the mode of preparation. It is insipid, slightly sweet, somewhat resembling wheaten bread mixed with Jerusalem artichokes, and some compare it to a cake made of flour, egg, sugar, milk, and butter. In general, it is cut into several pieces, and roasted or baked in a hole made in the ground, which is paved round with large smooth stones; and then it resembles a boiled potatoe, not being so farinaceous as a good one, but more so than those of ordinary quality. The stones are previously heated by a fire, kindled in the excavation, and the bread-fruit, being wrapped in a banana leaf, is laid upon them, and covered with leaves and hot stones. In Otaheite, and in the West Indian Islands, several dishes are made of it; Bread-fruit, either by thus baking it in an oven entire, when it is considered to equal or surpass any kind of bread; by adding water, or the milk of the cocoa nut, by boiling it, or forming it into a paste. This last is accomplished by taking the fruit before attaining complete maturity, and laying it in heaps, closely covered up with leaves, where it undergoes fermentation, and becomes disagreeably sweet. The core being then drawn out, the fruit or pulp is thrown into a paved excavation, and the whole covered up with leaves, whereon heavy stones are laid: it undergoes a second fermentation, and becomes sour, after which it will suffer no change for a long time. A leaven may be thus formed of it, which is baked as occasion requires. In the Island of Nukahiwa, an agreeable beverage can be obtained from it, and in the West Indies it can be baked like biscuit, and will keep nearly as long. The fruit is in greatest perfection about a week before beginning to ripen, which is easily recognised by the skin changing to a brownish cast, and from small granulations of the juice. In the West Indies, it is soft and yellow when ripe, and is in taste and smell like a very ripe melon. Hogs, dogs, and poultry then feed on it readily.

Besides this, the bread-fruit-tree proper, there is one that has been long known in India and the Eastern Islands, of which the fruit contains from forty to an hundred farinaceous seeds, in appearance resembling chestnuts. These when roasted or boiled are more grateful to many persons than the bread-fruit, and the negroes are very fond of them. The external characters of the tree are scarcely to be distinguished from those of the other, and the chief distinction lies in the fruit, which attains nearly the size of that we have described, and is covered with prickles like a hedgehog. It grows from the seed with rapid vegetation, and attains larger dimensions than the proper bread-fruit-tree.

The natives of those islands producing this useful vegetable, collect it without the smallest trouble; they have only to climb the tree to gather the fruit. Nor is this the sole purpose to which it is converted, for they have a method of fabricating cloth from the bark; the leaves are substituted for towels, and the wood is employed in the construction of their boats and houses. A kind of cement and birdlime is also prepared by boiling the juice exuding from the bark in cocoa-nut oil.

It appears that there are other vegetables of this class, producing fruit of inferior quality, but on that account receiving less attention. The bread-fruit proper is of easy cultivation in its native soil. In some of the Islands it seems an indigenous product, and springs from the root of old trees, without any care; in others, it requires simply to be put into the earth. The trees flourish with greatest luxuriance on rising grounds; and it has been remarked, that where the hills of the Sandwich Islands rise almost perpendicularly in a great variety of peaks, their steep declivities, and the deep valleys intervening, are covered with trees, among which the bread-fruit is particularly abundant. It has also been observed, that although we are accustomed to consider Orachite as of the greatest fertility in this plant, the trees of Bread-fruit; the Sandwich Islands produce double the quantity of fruit. Though nearly of the same height, the branches begin to shoot out much lower from the trunk, and with greater luxuriance. In Otaheite, they are propagated by suckers from the root, which are best transplanted in wet weather, when the earth forms balls around them; then they are not liable to suffer from removal. This valuable plant is widely diffused in the Southern and Eastern Isles, and it is generally found throughout the great Pacific Ocean. It grows on Ambonay, the Banda Islands, Timor, and the Ladrones; but it is more specially the object of care and cultivation in the Marquesas, and the Friendly and Society Islands, where it vegetates in uncommon luxuriance and profusion.

Attempts to transplant it to the West Indies.

The great utility of the bread-fruit as an article of subsistence for mankind, has, at different times, led to speculations on the possibility of naturalizing it in places where it is not of spontaneous growth. M. de Poive, the philosophic Governor of the Mauritius, succeeded in introducing it there, and in the Isle of Bourbon, whither it was conveyed by M. de Sonnerat from Luçon in the Philippine Islands. Being found in the greatest luxuriance under the same latitudes as the British West India Islands, and in a climate not dissimilar, Government deemed the transmission of it thither, both as practicable without much difficulty, and as promising a future store of subsistence for the inhabitants. An expedition was therefore fitted out, with particular care, under the command of Captain, then Lieutenant Bligh, who sailed in the Bounty store ship, for the South Seas, in December 1787. This vessel was prepared so as to receive a great many bread-fruit and other plants, which would have proved a valuable acquisition to the colonists of the West Indies, and some which were expected to succeed under the culture of the curious in Great Britain. The Bounty arrived in safety at Otaheite, the principal place of her destination, and took on board 1015 bread-fruit plants, besides a great variety of different species of other plants, and after remaining twenty-three weeks, which were busily occupied, set sail on the 4th of April 1789. But it is unnecessary to say more of the expedition, which was rendered totally abortive by a mutiny ensuing three weeks subsequent to its departure; the cause of which still remains in obscurity. The Captain and eighteen adherents were barbarously turned adrift in an open boat, wherein they suffered incredible hardships, and, after a navigation of 3600 miles, reached the Island of Timor, having lost only one of their number, who was murdered by the savages of an intermediate Island. Notwithstanding the unfortunate result of this voyage, the object was still kept in view, and a new expedition planned with still greater precaution than the former; and it has been said that his present Majesty, King George III, took a lively interest in conferring so important a benefit on a distant part of his people. Captain Bligh having arrived in England, was appointed to the command of the Providence and Assistance, two vessels specially fitted out as before; and part of their complement consisted of two gardeners, to take the management of the plants collected. The vessels sailed in August 1791, reached Van Diemen's Land in February 1792, and anchored at Otaheite in February following. Here they remained above three months, and obtained even a greater store of plants than formerly; for there were now 1281 pots and tubs, whereas the first number of the bread-fruit-trees, in 1789, did not exceed 887. Captain Bligh, in returning, made a dangerous voyage through Endeavour Straits, the exploring of which was part of his former instructions, and anchored at Coupang in the Island of Timor, where he substituted many other plants for those that had died. He then sailed for the West Indies, and, touching at St Helena, landed some bread-fruit plants, and took on board those of different species. The object of his voyage was at length completed by reaching the Island of St Vincent's in January 1793, where he committed 544 plants, of which 333 were bread-fruit, to the care of Dr Anderson, Superintendent of the Botanical Garden, and substituted for them 467 of different species, designed for his Majesty's garden at Kew. In the next place, Captain Bligh landed 623 plants, of which 347 were bread-fruit, at Port Royal in the Island of Jamaica, and replaced them with a farther collection for the King, with which he arrived in England on the 2d of August 1793. Five years and eight months had thus been occupied in accomplishing the desirable purpose of these two expeditions. But it belonged especially to Britain, by whom a familiar intercourse with the southern Islanders was first opened up, to effect an object of so much importance.

Nevertheless, some have been found inclined to challenge the wisdom of so difficult and expensive an experiment; both because the expectations of those who looked for an inexhaustible source of subsistence were not speedily realized; and because the places the best adapted for its culture already possess another vegetable, the plantain, which is much more grateful to the negroes, for whom the bread-fruit was principally designed. It has been argued, that the bread-fruit-tree requires considerable care in cultivation, that its progress to maturity is slow, though in Britain it would appear extremely rapid. Three years are required to reap the fruit; the plantain demands no care, while it produces its crop in fifteen months; thus giving it a decided preference in the opinion of the Colonist, who is always impatient for a return. Further, that wherever any vegetable, already relished by the inhabitants of a district, is completely established, they will always reject what they think less agreeable. These arguments have certainly had considerable weight; probably, however, from not duly appreciating the difficulties attendant on such an experiment as the naturalization of plants. But were we to take a retrospect of all the obstacles which have opposed the cultivation of many species of grain and fruits at present not uncommon in Britain, it would be very evident that success has resulted only from the most patient and laborious attention. Positive conclusions on this subject, are perhaps as yet premature.

In the year 1777, a premium was offered by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures, to any individual who should bring the bread-fruit plant from the South Sea Islands in a state of vegetation to the West Indies, and the gold medal was awarded, in 1793, to Captain Bligh accordingly. That Society, with the laudable design of promoting its culture, continued to offer further premiums for the greatest number of plants raised in the British settlements; and in consequence a silver medal was awarded to Dr Anderson, Superintendent of the Botanical Garden at St Vincent's in 1798; and, in 1802, the gold medal to the Honourable Joseph Robley, Governor of the Island of Tobago. From the course adopted by these two Cultivators, the history of the bread-fruit has received much elucidation, and we shall comprise it in a few observations.

Mr Robley received three plants from Dr Anderson in June 1793, which he planted in very deep rich soil, and paid them every attention, in hopes of procuring shoots. They flourished exceedingly, produced fruit in 1795, and continued to do so until autumn 1801, after which we have no notices respecting them. Being disappointed of obtaining suckers, Mr Robley applied to Dr Anderson, who advised him to lay bare some of the uppermost roots, and to wound them very deeply; and having followed these directions in October 1800, they almost immediately began to put forth shoots in abundance. In December, 120 fine plants were thus obtained, which Mr Robley placed in baskets containing about a gallon of good rich loose soil, and deposited them in the shade, in the vicinity of water. With this element also they were refreshed when the weather required it. Baskets were preferred to pots for the plants, from being lighter and more easily removed. Likewise, because when deposited in the place where they were ultimately to remain, the baskets would speedily rot, and not repress the growth of the plant, which would then extend its roots. European Cultivators would do well to attend to the beneficial use of baskets, for it too often happens that a tender plant is wounded in removing it from a pot, or that the earth surrounding it is so deranged and displaced, that no subsequent care can preserve it from destruction. Encouraged by the successful issue of these previous experiments, Mr Robley prepared a point of land of loose sandy soil, bounded by a salt lagoon and the sea, for receiving a large plantation. When the tide filled, brackish water was to be found everywhere at the depth of two feet and a half' from the surface; but it had been observed in some of the South Sea Islands, that bread-fruit-trees grew in full vigour, though brackish water bathed their roots, and the point was otherwise defended from the encroachments of the sea by an artificial bank. The land being ploughed and harrowed twice, was divided into beds stretching across from the sea to the lagoon: the beds were 27 feet in breadth, and the plants put into the earth in the middle of each, and exactly at the distance of 27 feet asunder—thus leaving a large space for their vegetation. Mr Robley's expectations were not disappointed. In August 1801, he had 153 plants in a flourishing condition; and, prosecuting the object still farther, he had, in the course of the subsequent year, 371 on the point of land, of which no less than 319 plants were in a flourishing, and some of them in a productive state. He transmitted specimens of the fruit to England preserved in vinegar, as it will not keep above two days after being taken from the tree; as also of the dried leaves and blossom. Other correspondents, nearly about the same time, sent specimens of cakes made from the bread-fruit converted to flour, which were extremely well flavoured; and it seemed that a dry nutritious food, resembling Tapioca in appearance and quality, might be prepared from it. The vegetation of this plant is very rapid. Ten of those committed to the care of Dr Anderson, in 1793, were about two feet high, and half an inch in diameter; and he observed, that, in the year 1798, most of the trees in the Botanical Garden at St Vincent's were above 30 feet high, and the stem two feet above the ground was from three feet to three and a half in circumference. From the remarks he was enabled to make in this interval on the varieties of the tree in the Botanical Garden, it appeared that the fruit came out in succession during the greater part of the year, but less of it between November and March than at any other time. The number produced by a single tree was very great, being often in clusters of five and six, and bending the lower branches to the ground. According to the different varieties, the fruit was of various shapes and sizes, weighing from four to ten pounds, some smooth, others rough and tuberculated. When taken from the tree before maturity, the juice appeared of the consistence and colour of milk, and in taste somewhat similar. It issued for above ten minutes in an uninterrupted stream, and thickened into a glutinous and adhesive substance. Three months were required to bring the fruit to perfection, which, as above remarked, is about a week before it begins to ripen. Besides the Otaheitan bread-fruit, Captain Bligh left some of the East India bread-fruit in the Botanical Garden. But this proved of infinitely inferior quality, and a very indifferent substitute for it. It was ill-shaped, of a soft pulpy substance, and, like the other, wanting seeds, and propagating itself by suckers springing from the root.

A species of fruit, bearing considerable analogy to those above described, is found on the Nicobar of the Nicobar Islands, but we are unacquainted with the degree of attention it has received, either for the purpose of illustrating its natural history, or for economical uses. It is not less beneficial, however, to the natives. The tree producing this fruit vegetates promiscuously with others in the woods, but preferring a humid soil. Its trunk is straight, thirty or thirty-five feet in height, and from ten inches to two feet in circumference. The roots spring from it above the surface, and do not penetrate deep into the earth. The leaves are disposed like the large calyx of a flower; they are three feet long and four inches broad, of a dark green hue and tenacious substance. A long time elapses before the tree produces fruit, not less than about the period of human life. It then forms at the bottom of the leaves, from which it proceeds as it is enlarged, and, when nearly ripe, it changes from green to yellowish colour. This is the proper period for gathering it, when its weight is between 30 and 40 pounds. The exterior surface is cut off, and the fruit is boiled in earthen pots covered with leaves, during several hours, on a slow fire; when, becoming soft and friable, the preparation is sufficient, and the fruit is then exposed to the air, and is next formed into a mass not unlike maize, either in taste or colour. It may be preserved a long time, but exposure to the atmosphere occasions acidity. The plant producing this fruit, however, is not of the same genus as those above described, although its fruit is converted to similar uses, but is rather a kind of palm which it might be useful to naturalize in the eastern possessions of Britain.