168 TREES 



included in this family, but their New- World representa- 

 tives are not the most valuable. However, they have a 

 sufficient number of family traits to look foreign and 

 interesting among our more commonplace forest trees; 

 and because their distribution is limited they are not 

 generally recognized in gardens, where they are planted 

 more for curiosity than for ornament. 



The Papaw 



Asimina triloba, Dunal. 



The papaw has the family name, custard-apple, from 

 its unusual fruit, whose flesh is soft and yellow, like cus- 

 tard. The shape suggests that of a banana. The fruits 

 hang in clusters and their pulp is enclosed in thick dark 

 brown skin, wrinkled, sometimes shapeless, three to 

 five inches long. Dead ripe, the flesh becomes almost 

 transparent, fragrant, sweet, rather insipid, surrounding 

 flat, wrinkled seeds an inch long. The fruit is gathered 

 and sold in local markets from forests of these papaws 

 which grow under taller trees in the alluvial bottom lands 

 of the Mississippi Valley. In summer the leaves are 

 tropical-looking, having single blades eight to twelve 

 inches long, four to ^ve inches broad, on short, thick 

 stalks. These leaves are set alternately upon the twig, 

 and cluster in whorls on the ends of branches. The flowers 

 appear with the leaves and would escape notice but for 

 their abundance and the unusual color of their three 

 large membranous petals. At first these axillary blossoms 

 are as green as the leaves; gradually the dark pigment over- 

 comes the green, and the color passes through shades of 

 brownish green to dark rich wine-red. The full-grown 



