94 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



nut, but there is no reason to suppose that it is specially indi- 

 gestible unless eaten in large quantity. 



Another fruit which is of importance, and requires a para- 

 graph to itself, is the papaw (Carica Papaya), which bears a 

 large fruit not unlike a melon, but with a peculiar and not un- 

 pleasant flavour of its own. It is one of the great staples of 

 native mixed cultivation in the tropics. The leaves and the 

 unripe fruits of this plant contain a milky j nice, in which is the 

 ferment papain. Meat wrapped in a leaf and buried becomes 

 partly digested and much more tender, and of recent years the 

 ferment has come a good deal into use in the north for people of 

 weak digestion. It is obtained by bleeding the unripe fruits, 

 and purifying the product. Until lately, the trade was mainly 

 in the hands of the peasantry of the West Indian island of 

 Montserrat, and the capture of it by Ceylon, where it is a mere 

 bagatelle, will likely involve them in some suffering. This 

 phenomenon again illustrates the advantage possessed by a 

 country with cheap labour and European supervision over one 

 in which an industry is merely in the hands of the peasants. 



Vegetables. Speaking generally the tropics are poor in 

 really good vegetables, the best available, from the European 

 point of view, being the actual European vegetables grown at 

 high levels in the mountains or imported from Europe, America, 

 or Australia. Thus, in Ceylon, at 6200 feet and in south Brazil 

 at 2500 feet, the cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, turnip, potato, 

 celery, lettuce, leek, parsley, and other vegetables are commonly 

 cultivated by market gardeners and sent down to the low levels 

 by the night mail trains. It is true that these vegetables can 

 be grown at lower levels, but their cultivation takes much more 

 care and trouble, and cannot be commercially carried on. 



A very great variety of vegetables is grown by the in- 

 habitants of tropical countries, e.g. the yams, etc., described in 

 Chapter I, and other tubers, such as those of Canna, Tacca, 

 Curcuma, etc. ; pulses such as Phaseolus lunatus and other 

 species, Dolichos Lablab, Lens esculenta, the lentil, Arachis 

 hypogaea, the ground-nut, and many more ; gourds and pump- 

 kins of all kinds; onions, beet, radish, cabbage and other 



