->2 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



dibulifovm or hypocrateriform, with narrow tube and limb divided 

 into five equal lobes. 1 The androceum is formed of ten stamens 

 superposed, five to the divisions of the calyx, and five placed lower, 

 to the lobes of the corolla. They are all inserted towards the throat 

 of the latter, and each formed of a two-celled, introrse anther dehis- 

 cing by two longitudinal clefts, and of a filament which varies some- 

 times in length,- sometimes inasmuch as it is free or united to a 



Papaya Carica. 



Fig. 333. 



Mule flower. 



Fig. 335. 

 Seed (f ). 



Fig. 336. 



Long. sect, of 

 seed. 



Fig. 334. 



Patulous corolla of 



female flower. 



variable distance from the base with the neighbouring filaments. 3 

 A rudimentary gynseceum, with tapering apex, occupies the bottom 

 of the flower. In the female flowers there is a calyx analogous to 

 that of the male flowers, and a corolla with five free petals, valvate 

 or contorted in the bud. The androceum is totally wanting, or more 

 rarely it is formed of a variable number of hypogynous stamens, 

 little developed but fertile however, like those of the male flowers. 4 

 The gynseceum, here completely developed, is composed of a free 

 unilocular ovary, surmounted by a style with five branches, more or 



1 When they are contorted in pnefloration 

 their two halves are often a little unsymmetrical. 

 The corolla is generally large, white, yellowish, or 

 greenish. In the true Papaya (THupapaya) De 

 Candolle described the lobes of the corolla 

 as being constantly " dextrorsum (e centro 

 Boris observati) contorti." But Bentham & 

 Hookek say rightly : — " Character ab sestiva- 

 tione desumptus inter Papayam et Vasconcel- 

 liarn, qui ex sententia Candollei optimus est, 

 nobis nullius niomenti apparet, imm in duabus 

 speciebus flores in eodem spccimine invenimus 

 a:stivatione sinistrorsum et dextrorsum con- 

 torta." 



2 The five oppositipelalous anthers are often 



almost sessile, the other five having longer fila- 

 ments. The pollen is ovoidal with three folds; 

 in water it becomes spherical with three papil- 

 lose bands. (H. Mohl, in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, 

 iii. 327). 



3 The monadelphia is more or less pronounced 

 in Jacartia (Maecgr., Bras., 128, ic. ; — 

 A. DC, Prodr., 419 ;— B. H., Gen., 815, n. 18), 

 sometimes generically distinguished, and whose 

 leaves are always digitate; but which we only 

 make a section of the genus Papaya. 



4 Whence it results that the female Papayas, 

 which are cultivated far from the male plant, 

 often bear in our greenhouses fruits containing 

 fertile seeds. 



