The Jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia), bears fruit of an oblong form often seventy or eighty pounds in weight, the pulp of which is seldom eaten; but the seeds, which are abundant, are considered very good, and are said when roasted to have the flavour of sweet chestnuts. The leaves are very thick and leathery, and much smaller than those of the Bread-fruit, being seldom more than six or eight inches long. They are also generally entire, but this is by no means a constant character, notwithstanding the specific name, as those near the root are sometimes found nearly as deeply lobed as those of A. incisa. The Jack tree is a native of the East Indies, particularly of the Molucca Isles, Amboyna, and Ceylon, and it also seems naturalised in the West Indies, particularly in the Island of St. Vincent. The wood resembles that of mahogany.
The Cow tree, or Palo de Vacca (Galactodendron utile), appears nearly allied to the Bread-fruit tree, though its flowers are unknown. The nut, however, which is covered with a husk apparently composed of the hardened calyx, resembles those of the other plants belonging to the Urticaceæ, and the bark when wounded gives out abundance of milk, which is good to drink. Humboldt in his Relation Historique, describes this tree as “growing on the sides of the rocks, its thick roots scarcely penetrating the stony soil, and unmoistened during many months of the year by a drop of rain or dew. But dry and dead as the branches appear,” Humboldt continues, “if you pierce the trunk, a sweet and nutritive milk flows forth, which is in the greatest profusion at day-break. At this time the blacks, and other natives of the neighbourhood, hasten from all quarters, furnished with large jugs to catch the milk, which thickens and turns yellow on the surface. Some drink it on the spot, others carry it home to their children; and you might fancy you saw the family of a cowherd gathering around him, and receiving from him the produce of his kine.”
Fig. 75.—Upas tree. (Humboldt, as quoted in the Botanical Magazine, vol. 66, t. 3724.)
The Upas, or Poison tree of Java (Antiaris toxicaria), about which so many fabulous stories have been told, belongs to this tribe. The male flowers are gathered together in small heads on a fleshy receptacle, (see fig. 75 a;) and each consists of a calyx of four sepals (b), bending over four stamens, with long anthers and very short filaments. The female flowers have an undivided fleshy calyx with two styles, and this fleshy covering forms the pericardium of the fruit, which is a drupe. When ripe, the fruit represents a moderately sized plum, inclosing the nut, or stone, which contains the kernel or seed. The poison lies in the milky sap.
Fig. 76.—Mulberry.
The common black Mulberry (Morus nigra) has the general features of the order. The male flowers grow together in a dense spike, as shown in fig. 76 at a, and each flower consists of a calyx of four sepals, and four stamens, which spring back and remain extended after they have discharged their pollen (b). The female flowers also grow closely together, in dense spikes, round a slender receptacle; each having two elongated fringed stigmas (c), and a calyx of four sepals, and being inclosed in an involucre, as shown at d. As the seeds ripen, each female flower becomes a drupe, consisting of a fleshy and juicy pericardium formed from the calyx, and the nut; and these drupes being pressed closely together by the position of the female flowers, the whole adhere together and form the fruit we call the mulberry. The involucre withers when the calyx becomes juicy; but the remains of it and of the style are often seen on the ripe fruit, as shown at e. The receptacle also remains as a sort of core, which is thrown away when the fruit is eaten, though it does not part from it so freely as in the raspberry; and the little nuts, or seeds as they are called, are found in the centre of each juicy globule. The leaves are simple, entire, and rough on the surface.
The white Mulberry (Morus alba) differs from the common kind in the fruit not being eatable; as the calyxes of the female flowers never become juicy. The leaves are, however, much smoother and of finer texture than those of the black mulberry, and they are principally used for feeding silkworms, for which those of the black mulberry are not so good.