G M. J. C. DE MELLO Jl>D MB. B. SPHUCE OK PAPAYACE^. 



with a very slight twisting to the right ; and an expanded fer- 

 tilized flower had the petals quite straight and suberect. 



The J peduncles, however, had usually the left side of ea^h 

 petal imbricated by the adjacent one, and the (estivation sinistrorse. 

 In a very few (chiefly but not uniformly axial) flowers it was 

 dextrorse'; and sometimes the two forms occurred on the same 



peduncle *. 



The character on which St* Hilaire relied in founding the 

 genus Vasconcellea^ viz. the 5-celled ovary and fruit, appears, 

 from Mellows observations, to arise from the placentas being more 

 prominent in some species than in otbers, — so much so in some as 

 to meet in the axis of the fully-formed fruit — precisely the same 

 thing as occurs in many Cucurbitacese ; and it is certainly not a 

 constant concomitant of a sinistrorse or even of a valvate aestivation 



a foregone conclusion of M. DeCandoUe, to support which he 

 is led to belie his authorities. Thus, of Vasconcellea cauliflora 

 he says, " fructus unilocularis, ex Jacquin, sed non credoy'' and 

 the same of V. microcarpa ; and he throws doubt on Poppig's 

 saying that the fruit of F. hetercyphylla is 1-celled, with five pa- 

 rietal placentas. Moreover the habit is the same in all, and a 

 quasi-5-celled fruit is the same externally as a 1-celled fruit. 



The third genus, however (Jaraca^m), will probably maintain its 

 rank — the aculeate stem, the digitate leaves with distinct stipel- 

 late leaflets, and the imion of the filaments into a short tube free 

 from the corolla, appearing quite sufficient to substantiate it f. 



Our materials are still far from sufficient to justify any one in 



^^^ r 



undertaking to work up the order anew; and being myself unable 



* I need scarcely mention that in the flowers of Apocynes, and in most 

 others with a twisted seBtivation, when the twisting is to the right, it is the 

 right margin of each petal which in^ricates (not is imbricated hy) the adjacent 

 petal ; and similarly when it is to the left ; but such is not the case in the Papaws. 



t I do not see by what right modern authors have quashed the Linnsean 

 name Carica, founded on the similarity of the foliage and fruit to those of the 

 common Fig. Indeed, as we shall presently see, the eariy Spanish colonists 

 called the trees "Fig-trees," and the fruit "Figs." The name "Papaya" is ap- 

 plied in Spanish America to only one (or two) species ; and in Brazil it is not 

 used for any ; while throughout the Andes the larger species are called 

 " Chamburu," and the smaller ones " Col del Monte" (Wood-cabbage). . 



If the difference in the aestivation be still deemed of generic importance, then 

 the genera would stand as follows : 



Cabica, L. {—Taj^aya^ DC, et Vasconcellea^ % Hemipapaya^ A. DC): 

 Kstivatione imbricata, leviter contorta v. fere recta. 



Vasconcellea, St, Hil. {^Vasvoncelka, § Eumsconcellea, A. DC): ^ti- 

 vationc inflexo-valvai'i. 



