The Hawaiian gazette., 1873-10-15
More about the AIgaroBa.

In the London Food Journal, we fnd an arti.
Gle, which. at this juucture, possesses more than
usual interest, as it furnishes additional in
formation relative to this tree, to which public
attention has latterly been turned. Its insertion
may serve to furnish us a new means for subsist-
ence. should famine ever visit our shores:
ALeoEnoBo BREAD.-we have lately had the op
portuBty Of tasting kind Of bead, cake, an ae-
count Of which may interest readers. It is used
by the inhabitants Of the province of San Juan. in
South America, and is made from the pods Of leg
luminous trss--A species Of Minosa, named Prosopi'
acis which grows abundantly in that province, and
is known there by the local name of oigorrobO
Plants Of that name are met with in Chilli and
other places in South America, and it used to be
thought that it Of generic applied In
discriminatory to number Of different species, but
We have high botanical authority for believing that
this is the that, although have, in d
ferent places, remarkable pecuiartes, these due
to local ercumstanees. and that in reality most Of if
ALL the varieties referable the species
Il is especially in the fruit that the differences appear
sometimes the pod is thick, and the poricarp what
the outer world would call the hull Of the pod),
spongy in other it is fat, thin, and papery,
and this applies to the kind from which the bread in
question is made. it being variety with a Cat and
thin PericarP. not thick French beans, but
good deal like them in appearance
The plant which produces it is tree which attans
considerable Dimensions. Il is 10 fact, the largest
and, in economical point of view, the most import
ant Of the province of San Juan. 1t supplies the
carpenter with materials for the construction of ord
nary household articles. such dOorI tables shelves
etc. and. the native ooalmines have yet been
practically explored, mule-lOads of algorrobO are
daily conveyed to San Juan, and there sold as an
article Of fuel. The younger trees, oshOOts from
parent trees that have been down. alone produce
howers. They commence towering in October, and
about the close of the year the games are collected
and stored for Reduced to powder and difused
through water they speedily undergo the vinous fer
mentatOn, and the product is beer-nOt at all
pleasant to the palate The finer particles obtained
by sitting moulded into the bread of which
speak. The seeds hard, possibly unestable, and
do not form any part of the bread it entirely
posed Of the fuor particles Of the pericarp. 1t is
made into cakes, Jumps, without any leaven, and
the result is exactly like other unleavened
dough, but slightly yellow. tits not baked or cooked
in any way. but merely exposed TO dry in the
The climate there is very destitute of moisture, so
that this is easily effected and the bread prepared
viii keep indefinite time hence It is especially
used by travellers taking heightened journeys. As
example of this, may mention that the portion
which we have given to US, with the above infor-
nation regarding it. by the venerable naturalist, DR..
Jameson. nf Quito. who procured it his journey to
this country two years ago, when he spent short
time in San Juan, and although then seventy -four
years OF age explored the district, and made valu
able collection Of its plants and insects lie informs
that the bit Of bread referred to is fresh the
day it was made and he finds difference either in
taste appearance, except that it is not quite so
white dry it Wss 1t is in fact, soft and
moist ordinary bread, which doubt due the
very considerable amount Of sAecharine matter ex-
isting 10 the egumes, aud which deliquesces in
moist climate That there is a considerable proper.
tOu of saccharine matter in is very precepble in
tasting this bread, it being very sweet. but
panied with peculiar flower, which probably re-
qurss educated taste to appreciate for cannot
say that like it. Still the power of keeping for an
apparently unlimited time is quality which invests
it with greater Importance than it would otherwise
possess.
Besides the timber. the beer, and the bread the al
SSAA"SN suPPiioe VI buo bIuHhe Oi
the old trees sxuding juice which is employed for
the purposes that gum. 1t appears even
tenacious and adhesive than the former but, on
tie other hand, it is absorbent of fmoisture come
Of the pieces given to being somewhat soft Per-
hAps it might make good mixture with real gum
arabio adding to its tenacity, in which the latter
weak. for everybody knows, gum-arabic applied
to smooth surfaces is apt to peel off, while the hard
Of the true gum would correct the propensity of
the algorrobo to soften in a moist clinater.