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MELON or PAPAW TREE. 
(Papayek. Fr.) 
Natural Order, Papayacejs. (Von Martius.) Linnmn 
Classification, Dicecia Decandria. 
PAPAYA.* (Trew, Tourn. Jussieu.) CARICA. 
(Linn.) 
Dioecious or polygamous. — Calyx inferior, minute and 5-toothed. Cb- 
rolla , monopetalous, with a contorted sestivation, in the staminiferous 
flower tubular, with 5 lobes and 10 stamens, all arising from the same 
line, with those opposite the lobes sessile, the other alternate ones on 
short filaments ; anthers adnate and 2-celled, opening lengthways ; the 
corolla in the fertile flower is nearly campanulate, and 5-parted almost 
to the base. Ovary superior, 1 -celled, with 5 parietal many-seeded 
receptacles ; stigma sessile, 5-lobed, fringed. Fruit a succulent indehis- 
cent pepo. Seeds spherical, enveloped in a loose mucous coat, having 
a brittle pitted shell ; the embryo in the axis of a fleshy albumen ; 
cotyledons flat, with the radicle inclined to the hylum. 
These are spongy-wooded, quick-growing trees of tropical America, 
without branches, like Palms, and yielding an acrid thin milky juice ; the 
* The native American name. Linnseus changed the name for Carica , 
because it was said to be a native of Caria ; but as the plant has no sort of 
relation with that country, it is better, with Jussieu and Lamarck, to retain 
the older and better name. 
