228 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



SPECIMENS OF THE PAPAW 

 Fig. 5. A male and a female tree. These fine trees are in full 

 flower and perfect leafage. Papaws (carica papaya) are grown 

 in the conservatory and in the grounds as well. 



servatory building that they admit of tree-like plants 

 flourishing there. A fine example of this is seen in Fig- 

 ure 3, where two fruiting specimens of Carica papaya are 

 seen to be in admirable condition. This is the famous 

 papaw tree, grown to become a very different tree as 

 compared with the one here shown in Figure 4 an out- 

 of-doors example of it. An authority at hand says that 

 "the papaw is native in South America, but now widely 

 diffused throughout the tropics. Its height is about 

 twenty feet; its deeply seven-lobed leaves are two feet 

 in diameter, and borne on foot-stalks two feet long. The 

 fruit is ten inches long, commonly of an oblong form, 

 ribbed, and having a thick, fleshy rind. It is sometimes 

 eaten raw or made into a sauce, or when green is boiled 

 as a vegetable and is also pickled. The trunk, leaves, 

 and fruit contain an acrid, milky juice (papain), which 

 has the property of making quickly tender meat, which 

 is boiled with a little of it or wrapped in the leaves, or, 

 as it is claimed, merely hung up among the leaves. The 

 seeds are an efificacious vermifuge. The leaves are 

 saponaceous." The papaw is also called, by some, the 

 melon-tree. 



When warm weather arrives, many potted plants may 

 i>e taken out of the conservatory and placed out-of-doors, 

 uhere they form very attractive subjects for study. In 

 the case of some of the rarer plants of the torrid zone, 

 this is a little hazardous, as these thrive only in high 

 temperatures. 



Two very interesting plants are beautifully shown 

 in Figure 9, namely the Chandelier plant (Bryophylluni 

 calcinium) and the Mother-in-law plant (Diffenbachia 

 picta). Note the fine ferns growing above these two 

 plants one could easily spend days in this great conserv- 

 atory studying the plants of the tropics alone. 



We read that "the first collection of plants in the 

 United States Botanic Garden was brought to the United 

 States by the Exploring Expedition to the Southern 

 Hemisphere, 1838-42, commanded by Captain (rear Ad- 

 miral) Charles Wilkes. The collection was first deposit- 

 ed in the Patent Office, but was removed in 1850 to the 

 Botanic Garden. Some of the plants are still living, and 

 a large share of the present collection are the descend- 

 ents of those brought back by the Wilkes Expedition 

 A few have furnished representatives for many of the 

 principal conservatories of the United States and Europe. 

 The distribution of the collection is according to a geo- 

 graphical distribution. The strictly tropical plants oc- 

 cupy the central portion of the main conservatory ; those 

 of a semi-tropical nature, requiring protection and lying 

 towards the North Pole, are placed in the West Wing, 

 and all indigenous to countries lying towards the South 

 Pole are in the East Wing. 



A LOVELY SPECIMEN OF LADY SLIPPER 



Fig. 6. This species has been named Cypripcdium villosum and 

 is a rather near relative of our American lady-slipper, which 

 is still quite abundant in some localities in the Atlantic States. 



