CARIOAOEAE. 



243 



CAKICA. Papaya. True Papaw. 

 (Family Caricaceae). 



Soft-wooded glabrous tender 

 usually unbranched small trees 

 with thin milky sap and smooth 

 barR on which the enlarging leaf- 

 scars persist for years: evergreen 

 at the crown: pith 5-sided, at 

 length hollow in the center, like 

 the petioles. Buds small, round, 

 essentially naked though the out- 

 ermost leaves do not enlarge 

 greatly, usually abortive except as 

 they collaterally branch and pro- 

 duce inflorescence shoots. Leaf- 

 scars alternate, broadly shield- 

 shaped or shallowly 3-lobed, slight- 

 ly raised at base: bundle-traces 

 many, small in an open series, 

 quickly effaced : stipule-scars lack- 

 ing. Leaves simple, long-stalked. 

 The papaya is the tropical rep- 

 resentative of the muskmelon as 



a table fruit, and somewhat resembles an under-flavored 

 melon in taste as it does in appearance. It is grown often in 

 plant houses and fruits not infrequently under such condi- 

 tions. Plants that have reached the flowering age prove to 

 be essentially dioecious, the staminate flowers borne in elon- 

 gated clusters and the pistillate close to the stem, though an 

 occasional fruit forms on an otherwise sterile inflorescence. 

 The latex of Carica contains the digestive ferment papain. 

 Leaves palmately 7-divided. (1). C. Papaya. 



Leaves oak-like, shallowly 3-lobed. C. quercifolia. 



