1.52 POEESt TREESr 



A subherbaceous fruit tree with a succulent or 

 pithy trunk and no branches. Naturalised in India, 

 but originally introduced from the West Indies and 

 Central America. 



This -well-known tree is cultivated throughout the 

 province for its fruit, which is consumed as a vegeta- 

 ble when young and tender, and as a fruit when ripe. 

 Brandis says " meat becomes tender by washing it 

 with water impregnated with the milky juice, or by 

 suspending the joint under a tree. " 



This fact is well known too in South India, the 

 property being due to the presence of an active 

 principal called papain e. The latter is extracted 

 from the fruit in the "West Indies in the form of a 

 white powder, and largely exported to France and 

 Germany. The male flowers of the species are 

 deKciously fragrant, and might be worth-producing 

 in quantity for use in perfumery. Fruit the size of 

 a small melon and not unlike it generally. 



Cultivation. — The ' papaw ' grows spontaneously 

 from seed and thrives to perfection in rich garden 

 soil. One male tree is perhaps suflficient to fertihse 

 50 pistilliferous, trees, and should be planted in at 

 least that proportion throughout the garden. Self- 

 sown trees come up in backyards and rubbish heaps. 



XXXVII. CACTE^. 



307 Opuntia Dillenii, Haw. Kan. Papas kattali. 



The prickly pear. This succulent bush is natura- 

 lised on the plains of India, and in some parts of the 

 Madras Presidency — as in Salem and Coimbatore — 

 where it covers extensive tracts of dry land. Various 

 attempts have been made- to utilise the species com- 

 mercially, but as yet these have been attended with 

 little success, and the shrub is generally looked 

 upon as an obnoxious and persistent pest. 



