TREES GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. Ill 



are many family traditions. Although it cannot vie in beauty 

 or outline with the great-flowered magnolia, it is far from being 

 without its own loveliness. Among the great, lustrous leaves, 

 which are often twenty inches long, the cylinder-shaped bunches 

 of ruddy fruit rest perhaps even more peacefully than do the 

 unfolding blossoms. The ribs of an umbrella are somewhat 

 suggested by the arrangement of the leaves at the ends of the 

 branches and it was this peculiarity which led the early settlers 

 in Virginia and North Carolina to call it umbrella or parasol tree. 

 Its specific name refers to its three petaloid sepals. The tree 

 is nowhere common. It grows in rather wet, deep soil, a little 

 inland from the great swamps, and by the borders of woods it is 

 found intermingled with masses of rhododendron. The tree is 

 more hardy than many others of the family, and for this reason 

 much attention has been paid to it by horticulturists. It is the spe- 

 cies most generally seen in the northern United States and in 

 Europe. 



NORTH AriERICAN PAPAW. CUSTARD APPLE. 



{Plate XLIX.) 

 Asimina triloba. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Custard apple. Branches^ 10-40 feet. Penn. and western N. K., May \ June. 



spreading. southward to Ioxva Fruit: Sept. y Oct. 



and westward. 



Bark : dark brown ; marked with silvery blotches ; smooth. Branchlets : 

 light brown, fringed with red and marked with narrow, parallel grooves. 

 Leaves : five to ten inches long ; simple ; alternate ; with pubescent petioles ; 

 obovate-lanceolate, with pointed or slightly rounded apex and taper-pointed or 

 rounded base ; entire ; light green above, paler beneath and covered on the 

 lower surface with a rusty down ; glabrous at maturity ; thin ; glossy. Flow- 

 ers : solitary ; axillary; pendulous ; growing on club-shaped, pubescent ped- 

 uncles and appearing with the leaves. Sepals : three ; pubescent. Petals : 

 greenish yellow, gradually turning to dull purple ; six, in two rows, the inner 

 ones small. Stamens ; numerous ; on the receptacle. Pistils : appearing as 

 though enclosed in a round head formed by the anthers. Fruit : three to five 

 inches long ; oblong ; yellow and glaucous when young, becoming dark brown 

 when fully ripe. Fragrant ; edible ; sweet. 



From the true papaw of the West Indies, this one is very 



different ; and the genus is the only one of its family which is 



not tropical in its preference. It can hardly be said, however, 



to attain its full state of development in the north. It is a 



