574 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



N. 0. PASSIFLOM. 



522. Carica Papaya, Linn: h.f.b.i., ii. 599. 

 Roxb. 736. 



Eng : — The Papaw or Papaya Tree. 



Vern: — Pappiya, pepiya (B.) ; Papaya, papiya-amba, 

 popaiyah (H.) ; Arand-kharMza, kharbiiza. (Pb.); Popai (Duk.); 



Papai, papaya (Mar., Cutch and Bomb.); Paputa, katha chibhado 

 (Sind); Papia, papayi, kath, chibda, eranda kakdi (Guz.) ; 

 Pappayi, pappali (Tarn. I; Bappayi or boppayi, rnadana-anapakaya 

 (Tel.) ; Perangi, perinji (Kan,; ; Pappaya (Mai.). 



Habitat ' — Cultivated in gardens throughout India. 



Introduced from South America. A small, fast-growing 

 tree, usually unbranched, with milky juice. Bark thin, fleshy 

 within, papery outside. Wood soft, consisting of an outer ring 

 of fibrous wood bundles surrounding a large central mass of 

 cellular pith tissue. In the wood ring the bundles are wedge- 

 shaped, crossed ladder-like at intervals by bars in which, the 

 rather small pores are found. Between the bundles comes trie 

 rather indistinct soft medullary rays on the vertical outer 

 surface of the wood circle ; the ends of the bundles form a dia- 

 mond, shaped network Gamble). Leaves glabrous, palmatifid- 

 12-24in. across, on long hollow petioles, forming a round 

 tuft at the top of the stem. Stipules 0. Male flowers pale- 

 yellow, fragrant, in long, drooping axillary panicles, generally 

 dioecious, but occasionally there are a few hermaphrodite flowers 

 on a male plant. Female flowers in short clusters. Calyx 

 small, 5-lobed. Corolla-male: — tubular, 5-lobed ; Female:— of 

 5 tincar deciduous petals. Stamens 10, inserted in two rows 

 in the mouth of the Corolla. Ovary free, ovules numerous, 

 attached to 5-parieal Placentas. Fruit indehiscent, fleshy, 

 sulcate. Seeds black, numerous, embedded in sweet pulp, the 

 testa consisting of an inner hard, and an outer soft, larger. 

 Embryo straight ; cotyledons flat, in oily albumen. 



Uses : — Used in cases of enlarged spleen. The juice esteem- 

 ed good for ringworm and also vermifuge (Lindley). The 

 seeds are also considered vermifuge (O'Sliaughnessy). 



