CUSTARD-APPLE FAMILY 



Calyx. — Sepals three, valvate in bud, ovate, acuminate, pale 

 green, downy. 



Corolla. — Petals six, in two rows, imbricate in the bud. Inner 

 row acute, erect, nectariferous. Outer row broadly ovate, reflexed 

 at maturity. Petals at first are green, then brown, and finally be- 

 come dull purple and conspicuously veiny. 



Stamens. — Indefinite, densely packed on the globular receptacle. 

 Filaments short ; anthers extrorse, two-celled, opening longitudi- 

 nally. 



yVj-//A. — Several, on the summit of the receptacle, projecting 

 from the mass of stamens. Ovary one-celled ; stigma sessile ; ovules 

 many. 



Fruit. — Baccate, oblong, cylindrical, fleshy, from three to five 

 inches long. Sometimes curved or irregular because of imperfect 

 development of seeds. Edible. Seeds flat, oblong, roui-wded at 

 ends, an inch long, half an inch broad, wrinkled. September, Oc- 

 tober. Cotyledons broad, five-Iobed. 



One of two things a forest tree must do, it must be able to 

 reach the top and so enjoy the air and sunlight, or it must 

 learn to grow in the shade. The Papaw has elected to grow 

 in the shade. In its chosen home, which is the rich bottom 

 lands of the Mississippi valley, it often forms a dense under- 

 growth in the forest ; sometimes it succeeds in obtaining 

 complete possession of a tract, and there it appears as a 

 thicket of small slender trees, whose great leaves are borne 

 so close together at the ends of the branches, and which cover 

 each other so symmetrically, that the effect is to give a pe- 

 culiar imbricated appearance to the tree. 

 The blossom is interesting rather than 

 beautiful. It appears with the leaves, and 

 at first is green as the leaves, but as the 

 days go by it increases in size, darkens in 

 color, and by way of greenish brown and 

 brownish green it arrives finally at a rich, 

 dark, vinous red. Part of the petals are 

 honey laden, erect, gathered close about 

 Flower of Papaw. the stamcus and pistils, and the others are 

 open, spreading, finally reflexed. The 

 flower appeals to the scent, the sight, and the taste, of the 

 vagrant fly and the wandering bee. 



22 



