Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/286

242 Artocarpus incisa (nat. ord. Artocarpaccce). The tree attains a moderate height, has very large, acutely lobed, glossy leaves, the male flowers in spikes, and the female flowers in a dense head, which by consolidation of their fleshy carpels and receptacles form the fruit. The fruit is globular in shape, about the size of a melon, with a tuber- culated or (in some varieties) nearly smooth surface. Many varieties of the treo are cultivated, the fruits of some ripening numerous seeds, which are eaten as chestnuts ; but in the best kinds the seeds are aborted, and it is only these that are highly prized as vegetables. The tree is a native of the South Sea Islands, where its fruit occupies the important position that is held by cereals in temperate latitudes. The fruit, which on distinct varieties ripens at different periods, affording a nearly constant supply through out the year, is gathered for use just before it ripens, when it is found to be gorged with starchy matter, to which its esculent value is due. It may be cooked and prepared for use in a great variety of ways, the common practice in the South Sea Islands being to bake it entire in hot embers, and scoop out the interior, which when properly cooked should have a soft smooth consistence, fibrous only towards the heart, with a taste which has been compared to that of boiled potatoes and sweet milk. Of this fruit Mr A. R. Wallace, in his Malay Archipelago, says, &quot; With.meat and gravy it is a vegetable superior to anything I know either in temperate or tropical countries. With sugar, milk, butter, or treacle it is a delicious pudding, having a very slight and delicate but characteristic flavour, which, like that of good bread and potatoes, one never gets tired of.&quot; In the Pacific Islands the fruit is preserved for use by storing in pits, where the fruits ferment and resolve themselves into a mass similar in consistency to new cheese, in which state they emit an offensive odour ; but after baking under hot stones they yield a pleasant and nutri tious food. Another and more common method of preserv ing the fruit for use consists in cutting it into thin slices, whielj. are dried in the sun. From such dried slices a flour may be prepared which is useful for the preparation of puddings, bread, and biscuits, or the slices may be baked and eaten without grinding. The tree yields other pro ducts of economic value, such as native cloth from the fibrous inner bark of young trees ; the wood is used for canoes and articles of furniture; and a kind of glue and caulking material are obtained from the viscid milky juice which exudes from incisions made in the stem. The bread-fruit is now found throughout the tropical regions of both hemispheres, and its first introduction into the West Indies is connected with the famous mutiny of the &quot;Bounty,&quot; and the remarkable history of a small company of the mutineers at Pitcairn Island. Attention was directed to the fruit in 1688 by Captain Dampier, and later by Captain Cook, who recommended its transplantation to the West Indian colonies. In 1787 the &quot;Bounty &quot;was fitted out under command of Lieutenant Bligh to proceed to Tahiti to carry plants thence to the West Indian Islands ; and it was after the cargo had been secured and the vessel was on her way that the mutiny broke out, and Lieutenant Bligh and some of his crew were turned adrift in a small boat in the open sea. The mutineers returned with the vessel to Tahiti, whence a number of them, with a few native men and women, sailed to the desolate and lone islet of Pitcairn. Lieutenant Bligh ultimately reached England, and was again commissioned to undertake the work of transplanting the plants, which in the year 1792-3 he successfully accomplished. A somewhat similar but much inferior fruit is produced by an allied species, the Jack or Jak, Artocarpus integri- folia, growing in South India, Ceylon, and the Eastern Archipelago. This tree is chiefly valuable on account of its timber, which has a grain very similar to mahogany, and although at first light coloured it gradually assumes much of the appearance of that wood.  BREAKWATERS differ from piers in their not being necessarily adapted for commercial purposes. They do not, therefore, require to have roadways for the accommoda tion of traffic, or parapets for keeping water or spray from passing over them. Breakwaters are artificial structures consisting generally of stones or blocks of concrete, built or deposited in deep water. Their object is to tranquillize those portions of the sea which they cover, and which thus become sheltered anchorages. They may be divided into three classes: (1.) Vertical or nearly vertical structures of built masonry for arresting the onshore progress of the waves, and for either reflecting them seawards or deflecting them laterally. (2.) Sloping structures of rubble stones dropped into the sea from timber stages or floating barges, and hence termed pierres perdues, having a sloping face on each side, termed a talus or glacis. These slopes, which, after the blocks have been consolidated, are generally protected above low water by stones set closely together, called pitching, are the angles of repose assumed by the loose blocks under the influence of the waves, and vary in steepness from above high water to below low water, where the force of waves is least. They vary from about 1 foot horizontal to 1 foot vertical to 7 feet horizontal to 1 foot vertical. (3.) What may be termed composite breakwaters are partly sloping and partly vertical, and act by causing the waves to break, and also by partially reflecting them seawards or deflecting them laterally. The new breakwater at Aberdeen and the Dover Admiralty pier, which acts also as a breakwater, are examples of the first class. Plymouth breakwater, which rises with a general sea-slope of from 2 to 5 horizontal to 1 vertical to a height of 23 feet above high water, is an example of the second class. Cherbourg, which slopes from low water to high water, above which level there is a vertical barrier rising to 12 feet above high water, is an example of the third class. Breakwaters, though passive, are nevertheless real agents by which work is done in com bating the waves in one or other of the three modes which have been defined. For further information regarding the design of breakwaters and the details of their construction see.  BRECHIN, a parliamentary burgh of Scotland in the county of Forfar, 7|- miles W. of Montrose, and connected by a branch-line with the Caledonian Railway. It is situated on an abrupt declivity on the north bank of the River South Esk, here crossed by a stone bridge of very early date. The principal buildings comprise the parish church (with steeple and spire 128 feet high) forming part of an ancient and uncompleted cathedral, of Gothic archi tecture, which has been injured by modern alterations, several other churches, a town-house, the public and Smith s school, a mechanics institute, and an infirmary. The diocesan library hall of the Episcopal church contains an extensive and valuable collection of books, many of them presented by Bishop Abernethy-Drummond, and about 2000 by the late Bishop Forbes, who erected the building. Some ruins remain in the &quot;vennel&quot; of the Maison Dieu, or hospitium, founded by William of Brechin in 1256. The most remarkable edifice, however, is the round tower, situated in the churchyard near the cathedral. This tower is similar to those so common in Ireland, but in Scotland is only rivalled by the tower at Abernethy. Like similar buildings, it contains no stair, and the only access to the top is by means of ladders placed on wooden floors, which rest on circular stone projections within the tower. The height from the ground to the roof is 86| feet, the inner diameter within a few feet of the bottom is 8 feet, and the thickness of the wall at that part about 4 feet; the circum- 