6 
BULLETIN 61, HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION 
of growth of the plant. The maturing leaves of the Carica species 
form a natural abscission in separating from the trunk, leaving 
well-defined leaf scars. The leaves of vigorous, 1-year-old plants 
are 2 feet or more across. The soft smooth blades are palmately 7- 
lobed, each lobe being pinnatifid and pointed, dark green above, and 
light green below, with conspicuous venation. The cylindrical leaf- 
stalks are stiff, smooth, hollow, reddish brown above, greenish below, 
and from %y 2 to 3% feet long. 
FLOWERS AND FRUIT 
The flowers on the staminate or male plant of the dioecious types 
are sessile, and are borne in clusters on long pendent racemes 3 feet 
or more in length. In 
the individual flowers 
the corolla is tubular 
or somewhat funnel 
shaped, about an inch 
long, and divided 
into five spreading 
and slightly twisted 
petals of a creamy 
white or yellow color. 
(Fig. 7.) The flow- 
ers emit a pleasant 
nasturtiumlike fra- 
grance. Ten stamens, 
which are arranged 
in two series, occupy 
the throat of the co- 
rolla. The filaments 
are hairy, the anthers 
are oblong, and 2- 
celled, and the pollen 
grains are abundant, 
oval in outline, and 
yellow in mass. In 
most of the staminate 
flowers there are only 
rudiments of the pis- 
til, but occasionally a 
flower cluster devel- 
ops one or more flowers which produce fruit. (Fig. 8.) These 
changes are discussed in some detail under Variations, p. 10. 
The flowers on the pistillate plants of the dioecious type are sub- 
sessile, are borne along the trunk in the axils of the leaves, and are 
usually solitary or in few-flowered corymbs. The flowers are consid- 
erably larger than the staminate kinds. They have five rudimentary 
sepals and five fleshy petals that are united toward the base. The 
ovary is large, globose or slightly cylindrical, with the apex terminat- 
ing in five sessile fan-shaped stigmas. 
The fruit in general characters strongly resembles a muskmelon. 
(Fig. 9.) It ranges in weight from 10 ounces to 15 pounds, is spheri- 
FlGUBE 4. 
-Solo papaya of the round-fruited form, 
strain has a delicious flavor 
This 
