“Is that a mulberry too?” asked Clara, who thought that the size of the family was getting beyond all bounds.

“It is not really set down as belonging to the bread-fruit family,” was the reply, “but it certainly has the peculiarity of their milky sap.  However, as I know that you are all eager to hear about the bread-fruit tree, we will take that next.  This tree is found in various tropical regions, but principally in the South-Sea Islands, where it is about forty feet high.  The immense leaves are half a yard long and over a quarter wide, and are deeply divided into sharp lobes.  The fruit looks like a very large green berry, being about the size of a cocoanut or melon, and the proper time for gathering it is about a week before it is ripe.  When baked, it is not very unlike bread.  It is cooked by being cut into several pieces, which are baked in an oven in the ground.  It is often eaten with orange-juice and cocoanut-milk.  Some of the South-Sea islanders depend very much upon it for their food.  The large seeds, when roasted, are said to taste like the best chestnuts.  The pulp, which is the bread-part, is said to resemble a baked potato and is very white and tender, but, unless eaten soon after the fruit is gathered, it grows hard and choky.”

[Illustration:  THE BREAD-FRUIT.]

“So Edie’s ‘loaves of bread’ are green?” said Malcolm, rather teasingly.

“That’s because they grow on a tree,” replied Clara.  “Our loaves of bread are raw dough before they’re baked, and they are grains of wheat before they are dough.”

“That is quite true, dear,” replied her governess, laughing, “and we must teach Malcolm not to be quite so critical.—­The bread-fruit is a wonderful tree, and it certainly does bear uncooked loaves of bread, at least, for they require no kneading to be ready for the oven.  The fruit is to be found on the tree for eight months of the year—­which is very different from any of our fruits—­and two or three bread-fruit trees will supply one man with food all the year round.”

“Put what does he do when there is no fresh fruit on them?” asked Malcolm.  “You told us that it was not good to eat unless it was fresh.”

“We should not think it good, but the native makes it into a sour paste called mahe, and the people of the islands eat this during the four months when the fresh fruit is not to be had.  The bread-fruit is said to be very nourishing, and it can be prepared in various ways.  The timber of this tree, though soft, is found useful in building houses and boats; the flowers, when dried, serve for tinder; the viscid, milky juice answers for birdlime and glue; the leaves, for towels and packing; and the inner bark, beaten together, makes one species of the South-Sea cloth.”

“What a very useful tree!” exclaimed Clara.