Jack-fruit (poluomi 波羅蜜)

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Nicolò de' Conti's description of jack-fruit and the Jack tree:

"A tree grows here (the Malabar Coast) in great abundance, the trunk of which produces fruit resembling the pineapple, but so large as to be lifted with difficulty by one man; the rind is green and hard, but yields nevertheless to the pressure of the finger. Within are from two hundred and fifty to three hundred apples, resembling figs, very sweet to the taste, and which are separated from each other by follicles. They have a kernel within, resembling the chesnut in hardness and flavour, flatulent, and which is cooked in the same manner as the chesnut; when thrown upon live embers, unless previously incised somewhat, it bounces up with a crackling noise. The external bark is used as provender for cattle.(3) The [page 19] fruit of this tree is sometimes found under the earth in its roots; these excel the others in flavour, and for this reason it is the custom to set these apart for royal use. This fruit has no kernel. The tree is like a large fig tree, the leaves being in-tercised like those of the palm: the wood is equal to boxwood, and is therefore much prized for its applicability to many purposes. The name of this tree is cachi."

Notes by Paul Lunde:

(3) The tree here described is clearly the Jack (Artocarpus integrifolia, L.). The subsequent mention of fruits without kernels, and of incised leaves, leads to the supposition that the author had also met with the bread fruit (Artocarpus incise, L.). (See this passage in context within Conti's travel account.)

Below is a footnote by J. V. G. Mills:

"Po-lo-mi (Giles, nos. 9336; 7291; 7834); this foreign name had become a Chinese expression long before Ma Huan’s time (Hirth and Rockhill, p. 212); it is the fruit of Artocarpus integra Merr. (Wheatley, ‘Commodities’, p. 73)."

- J. V. G. Mills, Champa chapter, note 37.