CARICACEAE 337 
droecium cup-shaped, membranaceous beneath; filaments 5. Ovary rudi- 
mentary or none. Female flower with calyx and corolla as in the male. 
Corona a membranaceous fold, or none. Staminodes 5, forming a mem- 
branaceous cup surrounding the base of the ovary, dividing above into 
barren filaments. Ovary stalked or sessile. Fruit capsular, 3-valved. 
(Greek “gland” from the glandular leaves and petioles.) 
Species about 60 in the tropics of the Old World, 2 or 3 in the Philippines. 
1. A. coccinea (Blanco) Merr. 
A glabrous, suffrutescent or woody vine reaching a height of 10 m or 
sometimes more. Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, entire or sometimes palm- 
ately 3-lobed, acuminate, base cordate, 7 to 15 em long. Cymes long- 
peduncled, few-flowered, usually tendril bearing. Flowers small. Fruit 
ovoid, scarlet, smooth, 6 to 7 cm long, many-seeded. 
In thickets, Pasay, occasional, fl. Dec—Jan.; widely distributed in the 
Philippines. Endemic. 
94. CARICACEAE (PAPAYA FAMILY) 
Erect, normally unbranched, dioecious trees with milky sap. Leaves 
alternate, crowded at the end of the stem, long-petioled, large, palmately 
7- or 9-lobed. Male flowers in axillary, narrow, pendulous, elongated 
panicles. Calyx short, 5-toothed. Corolla salver-shaped, the tube slender, 
cylindric, the lobes 5, valvate or convolute. Stamens 10, inserted in the 
throat of the corolla; filaments short; anthers basifixed, exserted. Female 
flowers rather large, axillary. Calyx with 5 short lobes. Petals 5, free. 
Ovary superior, free, 1-celled; stigmas 5, lobed; ovules numerous, in 2 or 
many series on parietal placentae. Fruit large, fleshy. Seed globose, 
enclosed in a gelatinous covering, the testa variously roughened. 
A single genus of few species, natives of tropical America. 
CARICA Linnaeus » 
Characters of the Family. (Latin “fig,” probably from its supposed 
leaf-resemblance. ) 
1. C. PAPAYA L. Papaya (Sp.-Fil.). 
A small, erect, tree, 3 to 6 m high, unbranched, or sometimes when 
injured becoming branched, the trunk soft, ‘grayish, marked with large 
petiole-scars. Leaves suborbicular in outline, 1 m broad or less, palmately 
7- or 9-lobed, each lobe pinnately incised or lobed; petioles stout, hollow, 
about 1 m long. Staminate inflorescence axillary, pendulous, paniculate, 
1 to 1.5 m long, the flowers in crowded clusters, straw-colored, fragrant, 
the corolla-tube slender, about 2 cm long. Pistillate flowers in short 
axillary spikes or racemes, the petals 7 cm long or less. Fruit subglobose, 
obovoid, or oblong-cylindric, 5 to 30 cm long, green or yellow when mature, 
fleshy. 
Common in cultivation throughout the Philippines frequently spontaneous, 
fl. all the year; introduced from Mexico by the Spaniards at an early date, 
now found in all tropical countries. 
A form occasionally occurs in Manila with a few female or perfect 
flowers developed on the male inflorescence which become fertilized and 
develop small fruits. : 
11155522 
