"perhaps is of the opinion expressed by Aveusts St. Hrtaire, 
in the ninth volume of the. Mémoires du Museum d’Hist. 
Naturelle; that ‘* instead of uniting the Carica: to some 
Natural family, by employing isolated, and, consequently, 
systematic characters, it should be left among the Genera 
whose place is doubtful; and we must wait till new dis- 
coveries will enable us to connect it with other vegetables. 
Nevertheless, if it were absolutely desirable to give it a 
station in a linear series, it ought, perhaps, to be referred to 
the neighbourhood of the Urticez. | fn ae 
The native country of the Papaw Tree is almost as diffi- 
cult to determine as its situation in a Natural series ; writers 
on the Bast, and writers on the West Indies being equally 
disposed to claim it as an aboriginal of their respective 
countries. WiutipENnow gives the East Indies as the station, 
and speaks of it as only being culiivated in America. SO 
likewise the authors of the Dict. Classique d’Hist. Nat. say, 
«* Almost all the species are natives of South America. One 
only, the Carica Papaya, grows in India, but it is to a cer- 
tain degree naturalized in America.”” Rumpuivs, however, 
seems to be decidedly of opinion, that it was introduced to 
India by the Portuguese ; and Dr. Hamizron, in his learned 
Commentary upon the Hortus Malabaricus, published in 
the thirteenth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean 
Society, observes, that every thing he has seen induces him 
to believe, with Rumpurus and Dr. Roxzuren, “ that the 
tree is an exotic in India.” Mr. Brown * justly argues, 
that a careful investigation of the geographical distribution — 
of Genera, might often lead to a determination of the native - 
country of plants now generally dispersed: for example, 
that in doubtful cases, where other arguments were equal, it 
would appear more probable that the plant in question 
should belong to that country in which all the other species 
of the same genus were found decidedly indigenous, than 10 — ; 
that, where it was the only species of the Genus known to 
exist. Hence that learned Botanist and Philosopher infers, _ 
that the Papaw Tree is a native of America, there being” 
several other decidedly distinct species, natives of that con- 
tinent, while no species, except the cultivated Papaw, not 
any plant nearly related to this singular Genus, is known t0 
exist either in Asia or in Africa. Dr. Fremine too, has 
expressly said (Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 161. 8y0- 
ed.) of the Papaw “ this is not an indigenous tree of India, 
and consequently has no name in the Sanscrit languagy 
* Botany of the Congo, p. 50. 
MO cts i eck 
