Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/506

* BREAD. 446 BREAKER. (Rochester, 1890) ; Sadtler, Organic Chemis- try (Pliihulelpliia, 1000) : tinted States Depart- ment of Atriitullure, Oflice of Exi>erimcut Sta- tions, Bulletins Xos. 35, 52, 67, 85, and 101; United States Department of Agriculture, Farm- ers' Bulletin No. 112. BREAD-AND-CHEESE FOLK. A term applied to the Dutch peasants who seized Haar- lem in 1492. They were shortly after defeated by Albert, Duke of" Sa.ony. The rebellion had arisen from the latter's withdrawal of the city's privileges. BREADFRTJIT TREE, Artocarptin iiwisa. A tree of the order ilorace;c. a native of the islands of the Pacific Ocean and of the Indian Archipel- ago. It is one of the most important natural products of these regions, its fruit supplyhig food, and its inner bark a material for making clothing, while its timber and its milky juice are also employed for economic purposes. The breadfruit tree"is a rather slender tree, 40 to 50 feet high, often rising almost half its height without a branch. It has large pinnatifid leaves, fiequentlv 12 to 18 inches long, dark green, and glossy. The fruit is generally oval, or nearly spherical, and about the size of a child's head. It is a sorosis, a compound or aggregate fruit formed from nmucrous flowers on a common axis, and is covered with a roughish rind, which is marked with small square or lozenge-shaped divi- sions, having each a small elevation in the cen- tre; it is at first green ; when imjierfectly ripened, brown, and when fullv ripe assumes a rich yellow hue It is attached to the small branches of the tree by a short thick stalk, and hangs either singly or in clusters of tw o or three together. It contains a somewhat fibrous pulp, which, when ripe, becomes juicy and yellow, but has then a rotten taste. At a-n earlier stage, wlicn the fruit is gathered for use, the pulp is white and mealy, and of a consistence resembling that of new bread. In a still less mature state, the fruit contains a viscous white milk. The common practice in the South Sea Islands is to cut each fruit into three or four pieces, .and take out the core : then to place heated stones in the bottom of a hole dug in the earth, cover them with green leaves, and upon this to phue a layer of the fruit, then stones, leaves, and fruit alternately, till the hole is nearly filled, when leaves and earth to the depth of several inches are spread over al. In rather more than half an hour, the bread- fruit is ready; "the outsides are, in general, nicely browned, and the inner part presents a white or yellowish cellular pulpy substance, m appearance slichtlv resembling the crumb of a wheaten loaf." It has little taste, but is fre- quently sweetish, and more resembles the plan- tain than bread made of wheat flour. It is slightly astringent, and highly nutritious. Some- times the inhabitants of a district join to_ make a prodigious oven-a pit 20 or 30 feet in circum- ference the stones in whieh are heated by wood burned in it. and many hundred breadfruits are thrown in. and cooked at once. Baked in this manner, breadfruit will keep good for several weeks Another mode of preserving it is by sub- iectinp it in heaps to a slight decree of fermenta- tion, and beating it into a kind of paste, which, although rather sour, is much used when fiesh breadfruit cannot be obtained. There are miinci- ou3 varieties of breadfruit tree in the South Sea Islands, and they ripen at different sea.sons, the most highly prized being seedless. The tree pro- duces two, and sometimes throe, crops a year. In the West Indies and South America, into which it has also been introduced, the breadfruit has not come much into use as an ordinary article of food; but various preparations of it arc reck- oned delicacies. The fibrous inner bark of young breadfruit trees, beaten and prepared, is used for making a kind of clotli. which is much worn liy the common people in the South Sea Islands, though inferior in softness and whiteness to that inado from the Pa])er Mulberry. There exudes from the bark of the bread tree, when punctured, a thick, mucilaginous fluid, which hardens by ex- posure to the air, and is used, when boiled with cocoanut oil, for making the seams of canoes, pails, etc., water-tight, and as bird-lime. The timber is soft and liglit, of a rieh yellow color, and assumes, when exposed to the air, the ap- iiearance of mahogany. It is used for canoes, house-building, furniture, and many other pur- poses. It is durable when not exjiosed to the weather. The Jack tree (q.y.) or Jaca [Artocar- Inkoocha). both large East Indian trees, belong to the same genus with the breadfruit tree. BREAD-NUT. The fruit of Brosimum ali- castrum, a tree of the natural order Artoear- paceip, and therefore allied to the breadfruit, a native of Jamaica. The genus Brosimum is dis- tinguished bj' male and female flowers on sejia- rate trees, in globose catkins. The fruit is a one-seeded drupe. The bieadnut tree abounds in a tenacious, gummy milk. The nuts, boiled or roasted, form an agreeable article of food and are eaten instead of bread. Their taste resem- bles that of hazelnuts. BREADROOT. See Psorai.ea. BREADTH. The term in art which denotes the iiiiality through which grandeur and sira- jjicity of effect is obtained. In painting, when the jday of light upon an object, a group of objects. "or a scene, is so managed that the effect is direct and (-arrying. the work is spoken of as possessing breadth. Mere outline does not so much contribute to this result as do light, and shade, and color. It is arrived at often through the suppression of unnecessary detail ; still, fin- ish does not preclude, or negligence produce it. Its secret is intelligent vision, and the truthful recording of seen things. Rembrandt in por- traiture is a good exemplar of this quality of breadth. Critics of painting often speak of an artist as having a broad touch. This is not close enough to define the meaning of breadth in a large sense; the ])ainter must also possess breadth of vision. Sculpture, too, demands this quality of breadth, and it is achieved in inodel- ing by ])roducing such forms that the light in striking a plastic mass is not so broken by petty forms as to destroy the simplicity and dignity of a figure or group of figures as a nionumental whole. The human mind, indeed, is distracted and disturbed, unconsciously, perhaps, in con- templating a so-called work of art in which this quality docs not exist. BREAKER. A wave of which the surface is brnkcii. usually by the nearness of the bottom to the water surface. A wave which is of little height in deep water will often increase in height as the depth lessens and finally break into foam.
 * )»s inteffrifolia), and the Dephal (Artocarpiis