FRUITS OF QUEENSLAND. 47 



THE PAPAW. 



Continuing our list of tropical fruits, we now come to the papaw, one of 

 our most wholesome -and useful fruits. It is grown all along our eastern 

 seaboard in situations that are free from frost. It comes into bearing early, 

 and is a heavy cropper. Like the other tropical fruits already described, it 

 does best in our wanner parts, coming to maturity earlier, and producing 

 better fruit. In many of the Northern coastal scrubs it is often met with 

 growing wild, and producing fruit in abundance, the seeds from which the trees 

 have been produced having been dropped by birds or distributed by other 

 natural agencies. The papaw fruit resembles a rock melon somewhat in shape 

 and flavour, the fruit being produced in the axil of the leaves all along the -main 

 stem, where they are clustered thickly together. The tree does best on well- 

 drained soils, and is very sensitive to the presence of clay or stagnant water 

 at the roots, hence it usually does best on scrub land or land well supplied 

 with humus. It is propagated entirely from seed, which grows readily in such 

 soils, and under favourable conditions will bear its first fruit when about ten to 

 twelve months old, and continue to bear for three or four years or even longer. 

 When the trees becomes old, however, the fruit decreases in size and deteriorates 

 in quality, so that it is necessary to plant a, number yearly in order to keep up 

 a regular supply. It is a very handsome tree, with large spreading leaves on 

 long stems, beneath which is its cluster of fruit as many as 100 fruits being 

 sometimes found in different stages of development on the one plant. The 

 fruit ranges in size from 2 Ib. to some 6 Ib. in weight, and when ripe it is 

 of a greenish-yellow or sometimes orange colour. The flesh is yellow, and when 

 quite ripe it is moderately juicy, and of a flavour that it not always appreciated 

 at first, but which one soon becomes very partial to. It more nearly resembles 

 the flavour of a rock melon than that of any other fruit, and the seeds, which 

 are found clustered in the centre of the fruit, have a flavour that closely 

 resembles that of seeds of the nasturtium. Both the seeds and the fruit 

 contain an active principle called papain, which is really a vegetable pepsin, 

 that has the effect of greatly assisting in the assimilation of all food with 

 which it is eaten, hence it is a valuable remedy in the case of dyspepsia, and 

 persons who take the fruit regularly are never subject to this exceedingly 

 troublesome disease. The fruit can be used both as a vegetable and as a 

 fruit, the former in its green state, when it is boiled and served with melted 

 butter, resembles a vegetable marrow or squash, but is superior to either of 

 these vegetables. As a fruit it is either used by itself, or in conjunction with 

 other fruits it forms the basis of a fruit salad. It is largely used in the North, 

 and its cultivation is steadily spreading South, as its valuable properties are 

 becoming better known. Its cultivation is very simple. The seeds are either 

 planted where the tree is to remain, or are raised in a bed and transplanted 

 to their permanent position in the orchard when strong enough to stand 

 shifting, care being taken to select a dull moist day. The young plants are 

 protected from the sun for a few days till they have become established, after 

 which all that is necessary is to keep down weeds and to work the soil round 

 them, taking care not to injure the roots. A good mulch of decomposed 



