Carica. dioecia decandria. 825 



Papaw tree of the English. 



The description of this plant in the Genera Plantarum is 

 perfectly exact. It is cultivated in gardens all over India, for 

 the sake of its fruit, which is used both green and ripe. 

 When green they are used in curries by the natives, also pickled 

 and made into a preserve. When ripe the interior, soft, yellow 

 pulpy part is generally eaten without the addition of pepper 

 and sugar, as in the West Indies ; many like them much, and 

 they are esteemed innocent and wholesome. It is likely that 

 in this country they may be of a superior quality to those of 

 the West Indies. 



I made some experiments in the years 1790 and 1791 , to de- 

 ^ termine whether the female would bear, and ripen its fruit 

 without the male, for which I reared a number of young trees 

 in a garden situate at least a mile and a half from any other 

 Papaw tree ; as soon as they showed their flower buds, I 

 could easily distinguish the male, and destroyed them all ; 

 nine females were left. They grew most luxuriantly, being 

 in a good soil and well watered, blossomed as usual, and the 

 fruit o-rew till it was about half the usual size; then or before 

 they uniformly fell off without appearing to have more than 

 the rudiments of seeds. In this manner -they continued to 

 blossom and produce half-grown fruit for fully one year, 

 without producing one that came to maturity. I was 

 then perfectly satisfied with the success of my experiment, 

 and caused some male plants to be planted among them ; as 

 soon as they had flowered, my female plants began to pro- 

 duce large ripe fruit, their seeds came to the usual maturity, 

 and grew readily. 



The Linnsean sexual system did not want additional proofs 

 of its being established on the most solid foundation, other- 

 wise the above related experiment is a very strong one. I 

 know of no tree, or plant, so well adapted, to ascertain the 

 necessity of the male being so situate, as to insure the in- 

 tluence of its flowers on those of the female, to render them 

 fertile. Since writing the above Major Wynch informed me 

 VOL. III. ^ ^ 



