PAPAW OF ECONOMIC PLANTS. 311 



Panama Hats. — These are made from the leaves of Carlu- 

 dovica pahnata, a plant closely allied to the Screw Pine family 

 (Pandanaceie), native of Panama, Ecuador, and other parts of 

 Central America. It is a stemless species, with incised fan- 

 shaped leaves, borne on erect foot-stalks 6 to 8 or more feet in 

 length, rising from an underground caespitose rhizome. The 

 celebrated Panama hats and cigar-cases are made of the leaves, 

 which form considerable articles of trade in hot climates. 



Pansy. (See Violet.) 



Papaw Tree {Carica Papaya), a fast-growing, soft- wooded 

 tree, the type of the family Papayacese, averaging about 20 feet in 

 height, the stem being gouty near the base, sometimes as thick 

 as a man's body, terminated by a crown of large-lobed leaves on 

 long foot-stalks, producing flowers from the stem, below the 

 leaves. The fruit when ripe is of a yellow colour, 8 to 10 

 inches long, and either shaped like a vegetable marrow, or round 

 like a melon. It is a native of tropical America ; is common in 

 the West Indian Islands ; has been introduced into, and is now 

 common in, India and other countries of the East. The tree, 

 and even the fruits, are full of an acrid milky juice ; it is, how- 

 ever, palatable when eaten with sugar, and is said by some 

 to have the flavour of apricots ; when the half-grown fruit is 

 properly pickled, it is but little inferior to pickled mango. The 

 most remarkable property of this tree is that the juice makes 

 animal flesh tender very quickly wdien wrapped in the leaves or 

 hung on the tree for a short time, or flesh boiled in some of the 

 juice. It is said that by it the flesh of old fowls or hogs is 

 quickly made tender. Taking into consideration all that has 

 been written, there seems some difference of opinion respect- 

 ing the wholesomeness of the Papaw ; this may be probably 

 owing to different varieties, or even to distinct species, two of 

 which, from New Grenada, were some years ago grown at Kew. 

 A good deal of attention has been G;iven of late to the value of 

 the Papaw in medicine, both in this country and on the Conti- 

 nent. Carica spinosa is a branching tree, 20 to 30 feet high, 

 native of Guiana and Brazil. The juice is exceedingly acrid, 



