“Oh, Captain Harding, do you see that tree?” and he pointed to a shrub, rather than a tree, for it was composed of a single stem, covered with a scaly bark, which bore leaves streaked with little parallel veins.
“And what is this tree which resembles a little palm?” asked Harding.
“It is a ‘cycas revoluta,’ of which I have a picture in our dictionary of Natural History!” said Herbert.
“But I can’t see any fruit on this shrub!” observed his companion.
“No, captain,” replied Herbert; “but its stem contains a flour with which nature has provided us all ready ground.”
“It is, then, the bread-tree?”
“Yes, the bread-tree.”
“Well, my boy,” replied the engineer, “this is a valuable discovery, since our wheat harvest is not yet ripe; I hope that you are not mistaken!”
Herbert was not mistaken: he broke the stem of a cycas, which was composed of a glandulous tissue, containing a quantity of floury pith, traversed with woody fiber, separated by rings of the same substance, arranged concentrically. With this fecula was mingled a mucilaginous juice of disagreeable flavor, but which it would be easy to get rid of by pressure. This cellular substance was regular flour of a superior quality, extremely nourishing; its exportation was formerly forbidden by the Japanese laws.
Cyrus Harding and Herbert, after having examined that part of the Far West where the cycas grew, took their bearings, and returned to Granite House, where they made known their discovery.