302 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



1803, mentions the papaw as growing in the greatest 

 abundance, along with the dogwood and other kinds 

 of trees, "on the sides of creeks, and near the river" — 

 just as it does to-day — and enumerates it among the 

 wild fruit-trees of that region, with the cherry, mul- 

 berry, persimmon, and plum. Others, too, of the early 

 explorers and students of our forests, like Michaux, 

 have given their descriptions of the papaw. How 

 interested they were in these discoveries and obser- 

 vations among the trees, and how eager we should 

 have been also to find new varieties, and how delighted 

 we are in these days when perchance we do ! 



Outside of the many books on trees, however (and 

 even in the best of these the accounts are not very 

 extended) , the papaw has not found a conspicuous 

 place in our literature. Dr. Gray places it among the 

 trees that he loved in "This Paradise of Ours." 

 Bryant speaks of "the slim papaya" ripening "its yel- 

 low fruit," and, since he puts it in company with the 

 wild grape of the West, I have supposed that he means 

 by it our common papaw. Mr. Madison Cawein also 

 enumerates the papaw among the forest-trees of his 

 native Kentucky, where it is, of course, quite common. 

 Fosdick mentions the blossoms in a couplet. 



There is one amusing passage which I must 

 quote, in Mr. Fred Mather's humorous book of 

 reminiscences, "Men I Have Fished With," in a chap- 

 ter on "Fish, 'Coons, and Papaws" (pages 264, 265), 

 which doubtless voices the sentiments of many who 

 have tried to like the papaw, but who could never 

 acquire the taste : 



