196 GARDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



female organs are borne on distinct plants, therefore among 

 several trees some will of course be unproductive. 



Don says : 



" The most extraordinary property of the Papa w- tree is that 

 which is related first by Browne in his ' Natural History of 

 Jamaica ;' namely, that water impregnated with the milky juice of 

 this tree is thought to make all sorts of meat washed in it tender ; 

 but eight or ten minutes' steeping, it is said, will make it so soft, 

 that it will drop in pieces from the spit before it is well roasted, or 

 turn soon to rags in boiling. This circumstance has been re- 

 peatedly confirmed. Old hogs and old poultry, which are fed upon 

 the leaves and fruit, however tough the meat they afford might 

 otherwise be, are thus rendered perfectly tender and good if eaten 

 as soon as killed ; but the flesh passes very soon into a state of 

 putridity. In the third volume of the Wernerian Society's Memoirs 

 there is a highly interesting paper on the properties of the juice of 

 the Papaw-tree by Dr. Holder, who has witnessed its effects in 

 the island of Barbadoes, and speaks of them as known to all the 

 inhabitants. The juice causes a separation of the muscular fibres. 

 Nay, the very vapour of the tree serves this purpose ; hence many 

 people suspend the joints of meat, fowls, &c., in the upper part of 

 the tree, in order to prepare them for the table." * 



Dr. Davy, however, who made some careful experiments to 

 ascertain the truth of what is above stated, came to the con- 

 clusion that the Papaw-tree possesses none of the singular 

 properties which have been assigned to it, more than any other 

 tree.f 



HYPOGYNOUS EXOGENS. 

 FLACOUKTIACE.E. 



Flacourtia cataphracta. 



PUNEEALA-PLUM. 



A small tree, native of India, grows to the height of about 

 twenty or thirty feet, with small leaves and branches covered 

 with numerous thorns. 



The fruit ripens during the months of September and October, 

 and is of the form and size of a Cherry or Tiparee, slightly com- 



* Don's ' Gardener's Dictionary,' vol. iii. p. 44. 



f See ' Journal of Agri-Hort. Society,' vol*4x. p. 73. 



