PAPAYACEJE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 69. 



CARICA. 



221. C. Papaya Linn, sp.pl. 1466. Bot. reg. t. 459. JBot. 

 Mag. tt. 2898, 2899. Roxb.fi. ind. iii. 824-. W. and A. i. 352. 

 (RJieed. i. t. 15. t. 1 and 2. Rumf. i. t. 50.) Tropical parts 

 of America ; cultivated commonly in India. 



An upright unbranched tree, with the foliage large and confined to 

 the top of the tree ; every part yielding a slightly acrid and somewhat 

 milky juice. Stem 20 feet high and more, cylindrical, or generally 

 thickened towards the base, with a pale greyish, rather smooth, scarred 

 bark. Leaves spreading, often a foot in length, stalked, heart-shaped 

 in their circumscription, cut into 7 oblong, sinuated, or laciniate and 

 almost pinnatifid, rarely entire lobes, acute at the points, the middle 

 one the longest and the most divided, glabrous on both sides, dark 

 green above, beneath much lighter, with prominent veins. Petiole 1 

 or 2 feet long, glabrous, cylindrical. Flowers (male), axillary, in 

 slightly compound racemes or panicles, several inches long. Peduncles 

 and pedicels terete, glabrous. Calyx very minute, a little concave, 

 with 5 very small teeth. Corolla infundibuliform, 1-1J inch long, 

 yellowish white, thickish, subcoriaceous ; tube cylindrical; limb cut 

 into 5 imbricated oblong lacinia?. Stamens 10, inserted into the mouth 

 of the tube, and all on the same line, 5 nearly sessile opposite the 

 segments, the 5 others with evident filaments, which are white, hairy, 

 thickened upwards : anthers of 2, linear-oblong, channelled cells. 

 Abortive pistil small. Ovary oblong : style subulate : stigma none. 

 Female flowers in short simple racemes, upon a different tree from the 

 male, or occasionally on the same ; and, indeed, according to Trew, the 

 flowers are sometimes hermaphrodite. Calyx as in the male. Corolla 

 much longer than in the male, of a yellower colour, cut nearly to the 

 base into 5, oblong, moderately spreading segments, or, if we may trust 

 the figures, pentapetalous. Ovary large, ovate, oblong, green : stigmas 

 nearly sessile, of 5, radiate, cuneated and fimbriated, yellowish-green 

 lobes. The corolla falls away, and the ovary, in coming to maturity 

 becomes pendent : the tree, too, advancing in height, casts its lower 

 leaves from beneath the flowers; and the fruit constituting a large 

 oblong pepo, rests suspended upon the leafless part of the trunk, very 

 much in the same way as that of the Artocarpus. The surface, when 

 the fruit is ripe, is a pale and rather dingy orange yellow, obscurely 

 furrowed, and often rough with little elevated points. The flesh is very 

 thick, coloured, but paler than the outside ; and there pass through it, 

 longitudinally, 5 bundles of vessels. In the centre is a considerable 

 cavity, with 5 longitudinal ridges ; and these are thickly clothed with 

 numerous seeds about as large as those of hemp, roundish, compressed, 

 almost black, but covered with a transversely wrinkled, loose, greyish 

 skin or aril, and enveloped in mucus. Albumen fleshy. Embryo 

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