PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 293 



alwaj'S occupied this vast region. P. Browne says dis- 

 tinctly that the a\ ocado pear was introduced from the 

 Continent into Jamaica, and Jacquin held the same opinion 

 as regards the West India Islands generally.^ Piso and 

 Marcgraf do not mention it for Brazil, and Martins gives 

 no Brazilian name. 



At the time of the discovery of America, the species 

 was certainl}'- wild and cultivated in Mexico, according 

 to Hernandez. Acosta ^ says it was cultivated in Peru 

 under the name of j)alto, which was that of a people of 

 the eastern part of Peru, among whom it was abundant.^ 

 I find no proof that it was wild upon the Peruvian 

 littoral. 



Papaw Carica Papaya, Linnseus ; Papaya vulgaris, 

 de Candolle. 



The papaw is a large herbaceous plant rather than a 

 tree. It has a sort of juicy trunk terminated by a tuft 

 of leaves, and the fruit, which is like a melon, hangs down 

 under the leaves."* It is now grown in all tropical coun- 

 tries, even as far as thirty to thirty-two degrees of 

 latitude. It is easily naturalized outside plantations. 

 This is one reason why it has been said, and people still 

 say that it is a native of Asia or of Africa, whereas Robert 

 Brown and. I proved in 184)8 and 1855 its American 

 origin.^ I repeat the arguments against its supposed 

 origin in the- eastern hemisphere. 



The species has no Sanskrit name. In modern Indian 

 languages it bears names derived from the American 

 word papaya, itself a corruption of the Carib abahai.^ 

 Rumphius'' says that the inhabitants of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago considered it as an exotic plant introduced by the 

 Portuguese, and gave it names expressing its likeness to 



* P. Browne, Jamaica, p. 214 ; Jacqnin, Ohf;., i. p. 38. 



* Acosta, Hist. Nat. des Indes., edit. 1508, p. 176. 



* Laet, Hist. Nouv. Monde, i. pp. 32.5, 341. 



* See the fine plates in Tussac's Flore des Antilles, iii. p. 45, pis. 10 

 nnd 11. TJie papaw belongs to the small family of the Papaijace<, fnsed 

 by some botanists into the Passiflorce, and by others into the Bixace^. 



* R. Brown, Bot. of Congo, p. 52: A. de" Candolle, Geogr. Bot. Rais., 

 p. 917. 



* Sagot, Joui-n. de la Soc. Centr d'Hortic. de France, 1872. 



* Rumphius, Amhoin, i. p. 117. 



