CHAPTER XXXI: THE PAPAW AND THE 

 POND APPLE 



Family Anonace.'e 



The custard apple family contains fifty genera, all tropical 

 and mostly confined to the Old World. 7 he family characteristics 

 are exemplified by the two genera with a single species in each, 

 which invade the warmer parts of the United States — vanguard 

 of the West Indian host of many species. These trees have 

 small use as ornamentals in a region rich in handsomer species. 

 Their fruits have small horticultural value. 



KEY TO GENERA AND SPECIES 



A. Trees with straight trunks; fruit simple, banana-like. 

 I. Genus ASIMINA, Adans. 



(A. triloba) pa paw 

 AA. Trees with trunks bulging at base; fruit compound, of many 

 united pistils. 



2. Genus ANONA, Linn. 



(A. glabra) pond apple 



I. Genus ASIMINA, Adans. 



Papaw {Asimina triloba, Dunal.) — Slender, spreading trees 

 or shrubs, 20 to 30 feet high. Bark thin, fibrous, dark brown, 

 blotched with pale grey, beset with warts and a network of 

 shallow grooves. Branches grooved, reddish brown. Wood 

 light, coarse grained, weak, soft. Winter buds small, flat, pointed, 

 densely hairy, red. Leaves alternate, simple, clustering near 

 ends of branches, obovate, tapering slenderly to base; 8 to 12 

 inches long, 4 to 5 inches broad, thin bright green above, paler 

 beneath, on short petiole. Flowers in April, solitary in axils of 

 last year's leaves; stamens in globular mass; pistils, many, 



261 



