PAPAYA CULTURE IN HAWAII 
cal to oblong, and in some instances is composed of five longitudinal 
sections. (Figs. 10 and 11.) The skin is thin, smooth on the exterior, 
and yellow to deep orange in color ; the flesh is yellow to deep orange, 
is 1 to 2 inches thick, and envelops a large, somewhat 5-angled cavity, 
attached to the walls of which are numerous round, wrinkled, black 
seeds the size of small peas inclosed in a thin gelatinous aril. 
The Solo papaya is a strain or so-called variety the description of 
which was probably first published by Higgins (S, p. 28) in 1919. At 
this time it was given 
the name "Solo" 
presumably because 
each fruit is large 
enough to serve one 
person only. The 
Solo papaya has con- 
tinued to grow in 
popularity and is 
now known to a 
great many persons 
in Hawaii and also 
in many other parts 
of the world where 
papayas are grown. 
To keep the seed- 
ling strain pure, it 
must be grown in iso- 
lation. At the Ha- 
waii station this 
strain, even when 
grown in a field an 
eighth of a mile dis- 
tant from other pa- 
payas, was noted to 
have become cross- 
pollinated with other 
kinds and to have 
lost its identity as a 
Solo both in flavor 
and appearance of 
fruit. It is here de- 
scribed along with 
the so-called round-fruited, dioecious type of larger fruit because the 
Solo plants of recent years growing at the station are practically all 
of this type. The present planting, not greatly unlike that of several 
previous years, contains 46 plants, 10 of which are staminate and the 
rest pistillate, without any hermaphrodite forms among them. 
Hermaphrodite or bisexual forms are said to have predominated in 
the Solo variety previous to 10 years ago. The plants are small and 
the trunks slim. They usually require about 18 months' growth 
from seeds to come into bearing, and the fruit does not set low as 
with most other kinds of papayas, but begins to develop at about 3 
feet from the ground. (Fig. 4.) 
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Figure 5. — Papaya plant of good form- -erect, vigorous, and 
prolific. The stake is 36 inches high 
