110 



PRACTICAL FORESTRY 



ASIMIKA. Papaw, Custard Apple. 



Small trees or shrubs, with deciduous leaves. Fruit large, in 

 clusters, pulpy, containing several large flattish seeds. The 

 Papaw is an edible fruit, and those who become accustomed 

 to its use consider it excellent and well worth cultivating. The 

 species are : 



Asimina triloba. Leaves oblong-ovate, pointed, covered with 

 a rusty pubescence, and the young branches are slightly covered 

 with the same, but become smooth with age. The leaves are 



quite large, sometimes 

 nearly a foot long, and 

 half as wide on young 

 vigorous specimens. 

 Flowers are of a pecu- 

 liar form, as shown in 

 fig. 27. The outer 

 petals round ovate, 

 greenish - yellow at 

 first, but changing to 

 dark purple. Fruit 

 banana-shaped or ob- 

 long, three to four 

 inches long, consist- 

 ing of a sweetish 

 pulp, containing sev- 

 eral large flattish bony 

 seeds. A very hand- 

 some small tree, some- 

 times thirty or more 

 feet in hight. Wood 

 rather light and spongy ; not valuable. The fruit might be 

 greatly improved by cultivation, and new varieties produced as 

 with other similar native fruits. Found sparingly in Western 

 New York, more abundant westward to Iowa and southward 

 to Florida. Readily propagated from seed or suckers, which 

 usually spring up more or less abundantly from the roots. 



A. parYiflora. Small-flowered Papaw. A small shrub South, 

 in dry soils. Leaves smaller and thicker than the last, and 

 flower only a half inch broad. Fruit small, oblong, or pear- 

 shaped. 



A, graudi flora, Large-flowered Papaw, Also a small shrub. 



Fig. 27. FLOWERS OF PAPAW, 



