THE GRAFTED PAPAYA AS AN ANNUAL FRUIT TREE. 1 



By David P'airchild, Agricultural Explorer in Charge of Foreign Seed and Plant 

 Introduction, sad Edward Simmonds, Superintendent in Charge of the Subtropical 



Plant Introduction Field Station. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is doubtful whether there is any fruit tree in the world that 

 grows as rapidly as the papaya (Carica papaya) or that yields as 

 heavily in so short a time, and it is hard to understand how this 

 tree, with so many interesting characteristics, should have remained 

 for centuries in the primitive horticultural position of a seedling 

 tree crop. 



One of the writers, Mr. Simmonds, has successfully grafted the 

 papaya, and as this discovery places the fruit on a new basis it is 

 worth while to consider it from a new point of view. 



There is probably no better known fruit tree in the Tropics than 

 the papaya, which is now well distributed throughout the frost less 

 regions of the globe. It was probably taken to the Orient from its 

 native home in South America shortly after Columbus discovered 

 America, for it is described and figured as early as 1656 2 as an 

 Indian plant which was being introduced into China. The tree is 

 now cultivated or grows wild in almost every part of the Tropics, 

 and the number of papaya fruits consumed by tropical peoples must 

 be extremely large. 3 



Almost every traveler in southern countries is struck by the 

 remarkable way in which the fruits of this papaya are borne, clus- 

 tered close to the single unbranched stem near its top, and also by 

 the accounts of the peculiar property which the leaves of the papaya 

 have to digest fresh or cooked meats or to render tough meat tender 

 merely by wrapping them around it. The discovery that this 

 phenomenon is caused by the presence of papain, or papayotin, in 

 its milky juice and that this papain when properly prepared has 

 distinct value as a medicine 4 has added new interest to the plan I 



1 Issued Mar. 29, 1913. 



2 Boym, Michael. Flora Sinensis, 1656, pi. A. Cited in Watt, Sir George, The Commercial Products 

 of India, London, 1908, p. 269. 



3 Kawakami, Takiya. A List of Plants of Formosa, Taihoku, 1910, p. 43. 

 Willis, J. C. Agriculture in the Tropics, Cambridge, 1909, p. 9.5. 

 Watt, Sir George, Op. cit., p. 270. » 



4 Pardo de Tavera, T. H. The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines, Philadelphia, 1901, p. 123. 

 Chittenden, R. H. Papoid-digestion. Transactions, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, v. 9, 



p. 298-332, 1892. 



Kilmer, F. B. The story of the paw-paw. American Journal of Pharmacy, \ . 73, p! 272 286, 336-348, 

 383-395, 1901. Abstracts in Pharmaceutische Zeitung, Jahrg. 46, p. 561-562 and 029, 1 901. 



[Cir. 119] 3 



