THE PAPAWS 169 



foliage by midsummer has become very thin in textm*e, 

 and lined with pale bloom. The tree throughout exhales 

 a sickish, disagreeable odor. The fruit is improved in 

 flavor by hanging until it gets a nip of frost. 



This "wild banana tree" is the favorite fruit tree of 

 the negroes in the Black Belt. Its hardiness is surprising. 

 From the Southern states, it ranges north into Kansas, 

 Michigan, New York, and New Jersey. 



The Melon Papaw 



' Carica Papaya, Linn. 



The melon papaw does not belong to the custard-apple 

 family, but it grows in southern Florida and throughout 

 the West Indies, and has the name of our little "wild 

 banana tree," so it may as well have mention here, as it 

 is the sole representative of the true Papaw family, and 

 it is universally cultivated for its fruit in the warm regions 

 of the world. By selection the fruit has been improved 

 until it ranks as one of the most wholesome and important 

 of all the fruits in the tropics. In Florida the papaw 

 grows on the rich hummocks along the Indian River, and 

 on the West Coast southward from Bay Biscayne. It 

 is very common on all the West Indian Islands. It grows 

 like a pahn, with tall stem crowned by huge simple leaves, 

 one to two feet across, deeply lobed into three main divi- 

 sions, and each lobe irregularly cut by narrow sinuses. 

 The veins are very thick and yellow, and the hollow leaf- 

 stalks lengthen to three or four feet. The bark of this 

 tree is silvery white — a striking contrast with the lustrous 

 head of foliage. The flowers are waxy, tubular, fragrant, 

 turning their yellow petals backward in a whorl. On fer- 



