PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 293 



always occupied this vast region. P. Browne says dis- 

 tinctly that the avocado 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 certainly wild and cultivated in Mexico, according 

 to Hernandez. Acosta ^ says it was cultivated in Peru 

 under the name of palto, 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, Linngeus ; 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 ail 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 

 Bi"own and I proved in 18 i8 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 

 lano;uao'es it bears names derived from the American 

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

 Bumphius'^ says that the inhabitants of the Malay Arclii- 

 pelago considered it as an exotic plant introduced by the 

 Portuguese, and gave it names expressing its likeness to 



* P. Browne, Jamaica, p. 214; Jacquin, Ob.s., i. p. 38. 



* Acosta, Hist. Nat. des Indes., edit. 151)8, p. 176. 

 ' Laet, Hist. Nouv. Monde, i. pp. 325, 341. 



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

 and 11. The papaw belongs to the small family of the Fopayacece^Uxsed 

 by some botanists into the Fassifiorce, and by others into the Bixacece. 



* R. Brown, Bat. of Congo, p. 52 ; A. de Candolle, Geogr. Bot. Rais.j 

 p. 917. 



* Sagot, Journ. de la Soc. Centr- d'Hortic. de France^ 1872. 

 ' Rumphius, Amhoin, i. p. 117. 



