CARICACE^ 683 



ovate acute bract; calyx minute, 5-lobed, the lobes alternate with the petals; corolla 

 of the staminate flower salverform, ganiopetalous, the tube elongated, o-lobed, the 

 lobe oblong or linear, contorted in the bud; stamens 10; filaments free, those of the 

 outer row alternate with the lobes of the corolla and elongated, the others alter- 

 nate with them and abbreviated; anthers 2-celled, erect, opening longitudinally, 

 often surmounted by their slightly elongated connective; ovary rudimentary, sub- 

 ulate; pistillate flower, calyx minute, o-lobed, persistent under the fruit; corolla 

 polypetalous, petals 5, linear-oblong, erect, ultimately spreading above the middle, 

 deciduous; ovary free, sessile, 1-celled or more or less spuriously 5-celled; style 

 or abbreviated; stigmas 5, linear, radiating, dilated and subpalmately lobed at the 

 apex; ovules indefinite, inserted in two rows on the placenta, anatropous, long- 

 stalked; micropyle superior; raphe ventral; hermaphrodite flower, corolla gamo- 

 petalous, tubular-campanulate, the lobes erect and spreading or subreflexed; stamens 

 10, in 2 ranks, or 5; ovary obovoid-oblong, longer than the tube of the corolla, more 

 or less spuriously 5-celled below. Fruit slightly 5-lobed, 1-celled or more or less 

 completely 5-celled, filled with soft pulp, many-seeded, that produced from the 

 hermaphrodite flowers long-stalked, pendulous, usually unsymmetrical, gibbous, and 

 smaller than that from the pistillate flowers. Seeds ovoid, inclosed in membrana- 

 ceous silvery white sac-like arils, occasionally germinating within the fruit; seed- 

 coat crustaceous, closely investing the membranaceous inner coat, the outer coat 

 becoming thick, rugose, succulent, and ultimately dry and leathery; embryo in the 

 axis of fleshy albumen; cotyledons ovate, foliaceous, compressed, longer than the 

 terete radicle turned toward the minute pale subbasilar hilum. 



Carica with about twenty species is distributed from southern Florida through the 

 West Indies to southern Brazil and Argentina, and from southern Mexico to Chili 

 One species grows probably indigenously in Florida. The milky juice of Carica 

 contains papain, which has the power of digesting albuminous substances, and the 

 leaves are often used in tropical countries to make meat tender. 



The generic name is formed from the Carib name of one of the species. 



1. Carica Papaya, L. Pawpa-w. 



Leaves ovate or orbicular, deeply parted into 5-7 lobes divided more or less 

 deeply into acute lateral lobes, these secondary divisions entire or rarely lobed, the 

 lowest lobes forming a deep basal sinus, thin, flaccid, yellow-green, 15'-24' in 

 diameter, with broad flat yellow or orange-colored primary veins radiating from 

 the end of the petiole through the lobes, and small secondary veins extending to 

 the points of the lateral lobes and connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets; 

 their petioles stout, yellow, hollow, enlarged and cordate at the base, sometimes 

 becoming 3-4 long before the leaves fall. Flowers often beginning to appear 

 on plants only 3 or 4 high and a few months old, producd continuously through- 

 out the year, staminate in clusters on slender spreading or pendulous peduncles 

 4''-12' long, pistillate in 1-3-flowered short-stalked cymes; staminate flowers fra- 

 grant, filled with nectar, their corolla f -1^' long, with a slender tube and acute 

 lobes; anthers oblong, orange-colored, surmounted by the rounded thickened end of 

 the connective, those of the inner row almost sessile and one third larger than those 

 of the outer row, shorter than their flattened filaments covered, like the connectives, 

 with long slender white hairs; pistillate flowers about 1' long, with erect petals, with- 

 out staminodia; ovary ovoid, ivory-white, slightly and obtusely 5-angled, 1-celled, and 

 narrowed into a short slender style crowned by a pale green stigma divided to the 



