126 Floristik etc. — Angewandte Botanik. 



Ess., Cocos micifera L. forma palmyrensis O. Becc, Fleurya ruäera- 

 lis (Forst.) Gaud,, Boerhaavia tetrandra Forst., Portiilaca oleracea 

 Linn., Lepidiinn owaihioise Cham. & Schlecht., Siirinna maritima 

 Linn., Ochrosia oppositifolia (Lam.) K. Seh., Ipomoea glaberrima 

 Bojer., Tournefortia argentea Linn. Harshberger. 



Higgins, J. E., Growing Melons on Trees. (Journ. of Here- 

 dity. VI. p. 208-219. 1916.) 



As results of his studies in breeding Papaya {Carica papaya 

 a. o.) the author speaks in this paper about the different types of 

 trees, the peculiarities of sex, the change of sex, the origin of 

 hermaphrodites, crossing the different forms, and gives a list of 

 ideals in breeding the papaya. These ideals are the foUowing ones: 



1. Vigor of tree. It is important with the papaya, as with other 

 species, to use vigorous individuals as parent Stocks. 



2. Early and low fruiting habits. There is a wide Variation in 

 the plants in this respect, some producing no fruit on the first five 

 or six feet of the stem, while others bear fruit which almost tou- 

 ches the soil. It is believed that this character may be transmissible, 

 and the advantage of early and low-bearing trees is obvious. 



3. Freedom from the branching habit. Trees that produce side 

 branches freely require considerable pruning to prevent the nume- 

 rous new shoots from taking the nourishment which should go to 

 the fruit. 



4. Productivity but not excessive bearing. Trees that have long 

 bare Spaces on their stems and those whose fruits are so numerous 

 as to crowd each other should be avoided in favor of such as have 

 the fruits well spaced with just sufficient room to nature normally. 



5. Hermaphroditism. It is essential to a profitable industry that 

 the number of "drone" male trees be kept very small. 



6. Suitable size in fruit. For home use or for the fresh fruit 

 market the extremely large varieties are not populär, and the bree- 

 der of table varieties will not, therefore, attempt to originate such 

 forms. On the other hand there is a place for these if the fruit is 

 to be growD as feed for poultry or other live stock. For papain 

 production, other things being equal, the large fruit would be best. 



7. Yield in papain. Where the production of papain is made 

 an industry there can be little doubt that the average yield of this 

 drug could be very greatly increased by judicious breeding. 



8. Uniformity of shape. The breeder must seek to establish va- 

 rieties which will have reasonable uniformity of shape as well as 

 symmetry and smoothness. It is not necessarj^ that all varieties be 

 alike, but there must be uniformity in pack. In breeding irom her- 

 maphrodite trees there will be a large number of pistillate trees in 

 the offspring. Although the long form is not necessarily confined 

 to the hermaphrodite tree, nevertheless pistillate trees do not usu- 

 ally yield fruit of this shape. For this reason the breeder may think 

 it best to work for two forms of fruit — the long, tending to cylin- 

 drical, for the hermaphrodite, and the obovoid for the pistillate, 

 The fruits of such an orchard would be packed as two varieties. 



9. Uniformity in ripening. This is an important consideration. 

 Some papayas ripen and decay at the outer end or the point while 

 the inner half near the stem is too green to be eaten. The ideal 

 papaya in ripening shows its first yellowing along the ribs about 

 midway of the fruit and ripens uniformly toward each end. 



