ly and
not in clusters. This fruit is fittest to be used when it is full-grown
but still green; in which state, after it is properly prepared by being
roasted in the embers, its taste has some distant resemblance to that of
an artichoke's bottom, and its texture is not very different, for it is
soft and spongy.

(*Footnote. About two months, namely from the latter end of August to the
latter end of October, 1742.)

...

EXTRACTS FROM THE ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN COOK.
HAWKESWORTH, VOLUME 2.

IN THE SOCIETY ISLANDS.

The breadfruit grows on a tree that is about the size of a middling oak;
its leaves are frequently a foot and a half long, of an oblong shape,
deeply sinuated like those of the fig-tree, which they resemble in
consistence and colour, and in the exuding of a white milky juice upon
being broken. The fruit is about the size and shape of a 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.

Pages 80, 81. See also the plate there and at page 232.

Of the many vegetables that have been mentioned already as serving them
for food, the principal is the breadfruit, to procure which costs them no
trouble or labour but climbing a tree. The tree which produces it does
not indeed shoot up spontaneously, but if a man plants ten of them in his
lifetime, 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 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.

It is true indeed that the breadfruit is not always in season; but
coconuts, bananas, plantains, and a great variety of other fruits supply
the deficiency. Page 197.

EXTRACT FROM THE ACCOUNT OF CAPTAIN COOK'S LAST VOYAGE.

IN THE SOCIETY ISLANDS.

I (Captain Cook) have inquired very carefully into their manner o