CARICACEA. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 5 
CARICA PAPAYA. 
Pawpaw. 
Stigma divided to the base into 5 radiating lobes, dilated and 3-parted at the apex. 
Fruit 1-celled. Leaves ovate or orbicular, deeply 5 to 7-lobed. 
Carica Papaya, Linnzus, Spec. 1036 (1753). — Miller, 
Dict. ed. 8, No. 1. — Aublet, Pl. Guian. ii. 909. — Aiton, 
Hort. Kew. iii. 409. — Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. ii. 814. — 
Persoon, Syn. ii. 626.—Lunan, Hort. Jam. ii. 36.— 
Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med. iv. 565. — Humboldt, Bonpland & 
Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. ii. 124.— Nuttall, Gen. ii. 
243, — Lindley, Bot. Reg. vi. t. 459. — Kunth, Syn. Pl. 
Aiquin. i. 430. — Vellozo, Fl. Plum. ed. 2,427; Icon. x. t. 
130. — Sprengel, Syst. iii. 905 — Hooker, Bot. Mag. lvi. 
t. 2898, 2899.— Don, Gen. Syst. iti. 44.— Schnizlein, 
Icon. iii, t. 200, f. 1-8, 14-18. — Spach, Hist. Vég. xiii. 
316.— Roemer, Fam. Nat. Syn. ii. 122. — Bentham, 
Bot. Voy. Sulphur, 100.—Seemann, Bot. Voy. Herald, 
128. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 290.—Sauvalle, FZ. 
Cub. 54. — Eggers, Bull. U. 8. Nat. Mus. No. 13, 56 (F1. 
St. Crota and the Virgin Islands). — Lefroy, Bull. U. 8. 
Nat. Mus. No. 25, 76 (Bot. Bermuda). — Hieronymus, 
Pl. Diaph. Fl. Argent. 121.— Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. 
Cent. i. 481.— Chapman, Fl. ed. 2, Suppl. 621. — Wien. 
Il. Gart. Zeit. ix. 448, £. 66. — Solms-Laubach, Martius 
Fl. Brasil. fase. evi. 188, t. 49. — Duss, Ann. Inst. Col. 
Marseille, iii. 310 (Fl. Antill. Franeaises). 
Papaya cucumerina, Norona, Verhand. Bat. Genoot. 
Konst. Wet. v. 23 (1790). 
Papaya communis, Norona, 
Konst. Wet. v. 23 (1790). 
Papaya Carica, Gertner, Fruct. ii. 191, t. 122, £ 2 
(1791).— Baillon, Hist. Pl. iv. 283, £. 332-336. — Otto 
Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. i. 253. 
Papaya vulgaris, De Candolle, Lamarck Dict. v. 2 
(1804). — Poiret, Lamarck Ill. iii. 410, t. 821. — Nut- 
tall, Sylva, iii. 47, £. 96.— Cooper, Smithsonian Rep. 
1858, 264. — A. de Candolle, Prodr. xv. pt. i. 414. 
Papaya sativa, Tussac, Fl. Med. Antill. iii. 45, t. 10, 11 
(1824). 
Caryca mamaya, Vellozo, Icon. x. t. 131 (1827); FZ. Flum. 
ed. 2, 427. 
Carica hermafrodita, Blanco, 77. Filip. 805 (1837) ; ed. 3, 
iii. 212. 
Papaya edulis, a macrocarpa, Bojer, Hort. Maurit. 277 
(1837). 
Papaya edulis, 8 pyriformis, Bojer, Hort. Maurit. 277 
(1837). 
Verhand. Bat. Genoot. 
The Pawpaw, which lives only for a few years, although the original trunk is sometimes replaced 
by others from the same root, in Florida rarely attains a greater height than twelve or fifteen feet, and 
its simple stem is seldom more than six inches in thickness; in the West Indies and other tropical 
countries it often grows to twice this size, and the stem occasionally divides into a number of stout 
upright branches.' The bark is thin, light green except toward the base of the stem, where it finally 
becomes gray, and closely invests the thin layer of woody fibres which give to the stem its only 
strength and within which a layer of soft tissues often half an inch in thickness forms the wall of the 
broad central cavity divided at the nodes by thin porous cross partitions. The stem is supported by a 
stout tap-root which penetrates the soil to the depth of twelve or eighteen inches, and by numerous 
thick fleshy lateral roots spreading under the surface for a distance of two or three feet. The leaves 
are ovate or orbicular in outline, deeply divided into from five to seven lobes which are themselves 
more or less deeply divided into acute lateral lobes, these secondary divisions being entire or rarely 
lobed; the lowest of the principal lobes are smaller than the others, nearly parallel and form deep 
sinuses at the base of the leaf; the leaves are thin and flaccid, yellow-green, and from fifteen to twenty- 
four inches in diameter, with broad flat yellow or orange-colored primary veins radiating from the end 
of the petiole through the lobes, and small secondary veins extending to the points of the lateral lobes 
and connected by conspicuously reticulate veinlets ; they are borne on stout yellow hollow petioles, 
1 See Gard. Chron. n. ser. xxiii. 141. 
It is probable that Carica Papaya does not develop branches unless the terminal growing point 
of the stem is injured. 
