IN PRAISE OF THE PAPAW 191 



in which maniacs have been restored to reason by the 

 exclusive use of cherries. The apple, they say, too, gives 

 to the face of the fair ruddiness, but the tint is it not too 

 bold, compared with maiden blush which bepaints the 

 cheek of the beauty who rightly understands the use 

 of the vital principle of the papaw? Those who have 

 complexions to retain or restore let them understand and 

 be fair. 



In North Queensland the plant grows everywhere. In 

 the dry, buoyant climate west of the coast range, and in the 

 steamy coastal tract, on cliff-like hill-sides, on sandy 

 beaches a few feet above high-water mark, among rocks 

 with but a few inches of soil, and where the decayed 

 vegetation of generations has made fat mould many feet 

 deep, the papaw flourishes. It asks foothold, heat, light 

 and moisture, and given these conditions a plant within a 

 few months of its first start in life will begin to provide 

 food — entertaining, refreshing, salubrious — and will continue 

 so to do for years. Its precociousness is so great and its 

 productiveness so lavish, that by the time other trees 

 flaunt their first blossoms, the papaw has worn itself out, 

 and is dying of senile decay, leaving, however, numerous 

 posterity. The fruit is delicate, too, and soon resolves 

 itself into its original elements. Pears and peaches are 

 said by the artistic to enjoy but a brief half hour of 

 absolute perfection. The artist alone knows the interval 

 between immaturity and deterioration. The refined and 

 delicate perception of the exquisite and transient aroma 

 and flavour of fruits deserves to be classed among the fine 

 arts. Some people are endowed with nice discrimination. 

 They are of the order of the genius. The higher the poetic 

 instinct, generally the better qualified the individual to 

 detect and enjoy the fugitive excellences which fruits 

 possess. Can a gourmand ever properly appreciate rare 

 and fragile flavours ? Though he may be a great artist in 

 edible discords — things rank and gross and startling — can 

 he in the quantity of inconvenient food he consumes, be 

 expected to pose as a critic of the most etherealised branch 



