852 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



preserves, pickles, jellies, pies, or sherbets; or sometimes cooked and eaten 

 like a vegetable. The plants grow easily and rapidly from seeds, and they 

 bear fruit almost throughout the year/ A confection is sometimes made by 

 boiling the flowers in syrup. 



The fruit and other parts of the plant contain an abundant milky juice 

 from which an enzyme, papain, resembling animal pepsin in its digestive 

 action, has been separated. This product has become an article of commerce, 

 being used for the treatment of dyspepsia and related affections, and also 

 for clarifying beer. The digestive properties of the juice were well known to 

 the original inhabitants of tropical America, like those of to-day, who often 

 wrap meat in the leaves and leave it thus over night, to make it tender. 

 Sometimes leaves are boiled with meat for this purpose, but if too much 

 papaya juice comes in contact with the meat, or for too long a time, the 

 meat will fall apart in shreds. Indeed, it is even popularly believed that 

 the plant is even more efficient, for it is said that if old hogs and poultry 

 are fed on the leaves and fruit, their flesh will become tender, and if a 

 piece of tough meat is hung among the leaves of the tree for a few hours 

 it also will be made tender. This last property is attested by so eminent 

 an authority as Heber Drury, who states that he proved it by experiment. 

 The leaves are sometimes used in Mexico as a substitute for soap in washing 

 clothes. 



Various medicinal properties are attributed to the papaya plant. The 

 seeds and the milk from the roots are often employed as a vermicide, and 

 the milk is applied to the skin to assist in the removal of chiggers. The in- 

 fusion of the flowers is reported to have emmenagogue, febrifuge, and pectoral 

 properties ; a decoction of the leaves is employed as a remedy for asthma ; 

 and the juice is administered for indigestion. Grosourdy states that the juice 

 of the ripe fruit was used as a cosmetic, to remove freckles. 



The papaya is treated at length by Oviedo (Lib. VIII, Cap. XXXIII), who 

 states that in Hispaniola it was known as " papaya," but among the Spaniards 

 of the mainland it was called " higos de mastuerzo," the latter name being 

 given because the seeds had a pungent flavor like cress {mastuerzo). In Nica- 

 ragua, he states, the plant or fruit was called " olocoton." He claims also 

 that the plants were not native in the West Indies, but were brought there by 

 the Spaniards from the mainland, which may or may not be true. The plant 

 is mentioned by all the early writers, and is described by Hernilndez.' 



Ramirez has described and illustrated * a fruit known as " papaya vola- 

 dora," which is presumably a form of this species. It is noteworthy in hav- 

 ing peduncles as much as 34 cm. long. The flowers of Carica papaya are usu- 

 ally dioecious, but occasionally both kinds of flowers are found upon the same 

 plant. 



DOUBTFUL SPECIES. 



Cabica boubg.^ei Solms in Mart. Fl. Bras. 133 : ijg^ 1889. This name is used 

 by Solms in his key to the species of the genus, but, so far as the writer can 

 learn, no description has ever been published. The species was probably based 

 upon a specimen from the Valley of Cordoba, Veracruz, and the plant is closely 

 related to C. papaya. 



* For a general account of the papaya and methods of cultivation see F. 

 W. Popenoe in Bailey; Stand. Cycl. Hort.' 2460-2462. 1916. 

 ^ Thesaurus 99, 365. 1651. 

 "Naturaleza IL 3: 548-549. pi. 32. 1901. 



