THE PAPAW THICKET. 



297 



is it that teaches them this preference of their off- 

 spring? Can it be the memory of past experiences of 

 their own, now become an intuition through the prac- 

 tice of long generations? And why should they like 

 the papaw? 



Papaw thickets are frequently to be seen in open 

 clumps on hillsides, but more often are concealed in 

 secluded nooks in the woods; though they are seldom 

 so secluded that some boy or other has not discovered 

 their whereabouts, and I have generally found that 

 others have been there besides myself. They will 

 stand shade, and may sometimes be found growing 

 beneath their larger forest brethren along the banks 

 of woodland brooks; but I have noticed that they 

 relish an open exposure to the sunlight also. The 

 papaw-tree is ordinarily on the order and size of a 

 shrub, but I have not seldom seen specimens fifteen 

 or twenty feet in height, and well proportioned, with 

 a trunk diameter of perhaps four inches. Sargent, in 

 his "Silva," says they will sometimes have the diam- 

 eter of a foot and reach a height of some thirty or 

 forty feet. I am inclined to think that the trees bear 

 a larger and better tasting fruit, and more of it, when 

 comparatively young, in the form of a dense shrub, 

 than they do when they have grown taller, though I 

 have found good papaws on fair-sized trees. 



There would seem to be, of Asimina triloba, really 

 two kinds, an early papaw and a later variety. The 

 fruit of the former is somewhat larger, and of a deep 

 chrome yellow inside; and I have noticed that the 

 leaves are a deeper green, and remain on the tree 

 longer, and do not turn so soon ; and the papaws on 



