36 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



fruit is used by all ranks of people ; cooked in its unripe state, as a vegetable ; or served up, 

 when ripe, as part of the dessert, with perfect impunity. 



It is a common practice with some of the farmers of the Island of Barbadoes, to give an 

 infusion of the raw fruit; or, to speak more exactly, a diiFusion of the milky juice in water 

 extracted from the fruit, to horses, with a view, as they express it, ^^ of breaking down the 

 blood ;" and it is a fact, well established, that if given to a horse, whose blood exhibits the cupp- 

 ed huffy coat, it will, after some time, produce a loose coagulum, and reduce the inflammatory 

 symptoms which gave rise to it. I understood, from my friend, the late Dr Jones, of Barba- 

 does, well known in this University, by the publication of an ingenious experimenlal Thesis, that 

 he had ascertained this to be the effect of the papaw juice on a horse, which had cough, and 

 whose blood was buffy; and this account has very reoeinly been coufiriued to me, by 



I 



a near 



connection of Dr. Jones's, a gentleman who fonnerlj lived with him, and who is at present a 

 residenter in this city, as a student of nie^iicine. 



That this remarkable effect is independent of putrefaction, or of a process verging to pu- 

 trefaction,_is rendered extremely probable, by the fnofc, that it is not confined to dead muscular 



on one ot its constituent parts 



*> *^ *wa..*v.*T.vi ^ALitm^ij piuiiduie, uy lue iHct., raac ii 



fibre but is produced on the circulating blood ; or, at least, on one or its constituent parts. 

 At the same time, the consequence of this effect will no doubt he, by its m3chanical operation, 

 to promote and hasten putrefHction, on account of its destroying the C(,hesion of the flesh, and 

 separating the fibres. Tins is a fact so well known to the housewives of the colony, that they 

 ^«lwrr r"' «alt\"^^P"rk which has beenpar.ly fattened on the boiled fruit of the 

 IThJnZT-" 7T / ^'"r"'^ ^y the negro^s of the colony), on account of the fle.h 

 having nLprMf ' ^'' '"'"'? ^ "'''.^^ ^''''''' ^^^^^"^« '^'^ ^^^ ^^y experience, that, after 

 thich^ave >!r^^^^ of salting it will not keep as long, or L well as flesh o hogs 



ElthoLh the r.^W^^^ ^"n "In^f "^-^^'/'l- . ^'^"^ •« reinarkaole, this effect is observabfe, 

 tenerat^ed For a sf.;^^ ^'^ '""'T^' ^'^ "" ^^« ^"'^^^ papaw fruit, is not sensibly in- 



late Governor of^R^^^ gentlemen, who were in the habit of dining periodically with the 



to ascerta n the eff '^^^^^^^^^^ f'u''Z' f''Y''b ^"^ '"'''^^ ^"'"^^^ '^ '^is way. with a viev. 

 up Te Tesh was not f n r,^ ^ * ^^ ?' ''^'" ^^'' '"'"^'^ ^" fattened, were served 



th^ corimon mode. ' " '"'''' "^''^ '"'^'' '^^" '^^' '^ ^'^'^ ^^'^^^^^^ at the table, fed in 



?mlvrdd\lMl"' - ^'^"\^ '^ ^°^ injured by that diet. 



child ;^j:h1tt:!^w1tL^S^^ ^y --> ^^-i'^i-red as a vermifuge to 



q 



of one. I Confess tha kha ' no If ' ^'""T':^ "'^ '^' characters, and yields all the^products 

 theless, I beli^lTthat vLot ^^ ''— ---» -tter. '- 



like it, in water. Its solution is coa'ala 1 1 . f ' \''''T^ ^^.^j^^-" > -^i^'oe dried, it dis-.lves, 



solutions, and the infusion of nut3^^ \'''' ^^t' ^ ^^« ^^^^^''''' '^^ "^^'^"^^ 



products as any animal subslanl'whate.t^' U fs'n'it rh""'' ^^ ^•^^•"-^-"' ^^ ji^^^l^ 'he same 

 ought to surprise us ; for the luioes of aln 1; ,11 i . ''"'""*^ "^^"'« ^^ ^^'^ substance which 



its purity in that of the papaw." ^ ' '^"'^'" '^"^^ °^ '^ > ^^^ its abuadauce and 



Never- 



Cama Papaya-female plant. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE 106. 



of befiin^^S^^^ '""^ T'""^^ appearance 



minalbud of Iho 3nt - k'' ?''"^"'«b5« ^o the ter- 



2. A female flower, natural size. 



3. Ovary and calyx, petals detached 



4. Portions of the atigma mo.e higWy ^.^n(^^. 



5 

 6 



- Ovary cut transversely. 



• ^'f yertically— one-ceUed, the whole inner surface 

 covered with ovules. 



7. A seed enclosed in its sack or ariUus. 



8. 1 he sack opened showing the seed. 



9. Seed cut transversely, showing the embryo In the 

 nndht ot a laige albumen, 



10. Seed cut veiticaUy ihowing the embcvo in situ. 



