THE PAPAYA AND ITS RELATIVES 235 



off accidentally, a large number of shoots begin to form, one from the 

 upper part of each leaf scar ; that is, the axil of the leaf. This takes 

 place three or four weeks after the tree is decapitated. It is these 

 small shoots, of which as many as 50 or more may be produced by a 

 single tree, that are used in grafting the papaya. One of these shoots 

 is taken when a few inches long and about the diameter of a lead pencil, 

 is sharpened to a wedge point, the leaf surface reduced, and inserted 

 in a cleft in a young seedling papaya plant which has been decapi- 

 tated when 6 to 10 inches high and split with an unusually sharp, thin 

 grafting knife. At this age the trunk of the young seedling has not 

 yet formed the hollow space in the center. It is not necessary for the 

 stock and the cion to be of equal size ; the cion should not, however, 

 be larger than the stock. After inserting the cion, the stock is tied 

 firmly, but not tightly, with a short piece of soft twine. The grafted 

 plant should be shaded for a few days after the grafting has been done 

 and the twine should be removed on the sixth or seventh day. The 

 best success has been secured in these experiments by grafting potted 

 seedlings in the greenhouse, or under the shade of a lath-house, pre- 

 sumably because the stock can be kept in good growing condition 

 under these circumstances." 



One of the most remarkable features of the papaya is the 

 irregularity which it presents in the distribution of the sexes. 

 Normally it is dioecious, with staminate and pistillate (male 

 and female) flowers produced on different plants. Cross- 

 pollination is necessary to enable the pistillate flowers to de- 

 velop fruits. This is effected by insects. Among seedling 

 plants the number of staminates is usually greater than that of 

 pistillates. Only a few of the former being necessary as pol- 

 linizers (certainly not more than one in ten), this excess of 

 staminates is, from the grower's standpoint, an objectionable 

 feature. 



In addition to the staminate and pistillate forms, many 

 intermediates have been observed in which both sexes are com- 

 bined in one plant. Staminate flowers may occur with rudi- 

 mentary stigmas and ovaries which give rise to small worth- 

 less fruits ; and there is a hermaphrodite type which regularly 

 produces perfect flowers, is self-pollinated, and yields excellent 

 fruits. Numerous other forms have been described (see the 



