28o 
Story  of  the  Papaw. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June.  1901. 
the  native  description,  classified  as  varieties.  The  so-called  female 
trees  bear  only  fruiting  flowers  and  produce  the  largest  fruit' and  the 
greatest  numbers.  These  flowers  are  single,  with  a  yellow  (or 
purple)  corolla  with  five  sessile  petals,  growing  in  considerable 
numbers  at  the  apex  of  the  stalk,  which  rapidly  pushes  upward 
and  puts  out  new  leaf  stems.  The  fruit  development  is  so  rapid  that 
buds,  flowers,  green  and  ripe  fruit  are  often  seen  at  the  same  time. 
The  male  flowers  are  borne  on  hanging  stems,  ranging  from  6  inches 
to  I  foot  or  more  in  length  (hence  the  "  hanging  papaw  "),  and  may 
be  white,  bright  yellow,  sometimes  tinged  with  purple,  often  devel- 
oping considerable  fragrance.  The  hanging  stems  in  older  trees 
bear  fruiting  flowers  and  present  a  somewhat  curious  sight.  The 
fruit  of  the  hanging  papaw  is  not  large,  but  is  very  sweet.  The 
fruits  vary  considerably  in  form  as  well  as  in  size.  They  are  orange 
shaped,  squash-like  or  quite  resembling  the  cocoa  pod ;  again,  they 
resemble  muskmelons,  and  in  the  highly  cultivated  variety  water- 
melon shapes  are  seen.  The  fruits  are  green  (or  purplish  cast)  turn- 
ing yellow  when  ripe. 
The  skin  of  the  melon  is  smooth  and  thin.  Before  ripening  the 
greater  bulk  of  the  latex  lies  just  under  this  skin.  The  flesh  of  the 
green  fruit  is  white,  tough  and  watery.  As  the  fruit  ripens  it  turns 
to  a  muskmelon  yellow,  with  a  thickness  of  about  I  y2  inches,  end- 
ing in  a  central  cavity  which  is  filled  with  seeds  attached  to  and 
held  together  with  a  delicate  membrane,  which  constitutes  the  inner 
skin  of  the  fruit. 
The  seeds  when  fresh  are  dark  brown,  changing  to  black  on  dry- 
ing. Before  desiccation  their  outer  membranous  coating  is  trans- 
parent and  slippery  ;  the  inner  coating  is  hard,  horny  and  wrinkled, 
and  between  these  two  coatings  lies  a  mucilaginous  substance  con- 
taining myrosin.  Within  the  inner  shell  lies  the  leaf-like  cotyle- 
dons, veined  at  the  base  with  an  albuminous  homotropal  embryo 
with  a  roundish  radicle  easily  distinguished  when  slightly  magnified. 
The  seeds  when  dried  resemble  pepper.  They  are  aromatic, 
pungent,  piquant  but  not  as  sharp  as  mustard,  their  taste  slightly 
suggesting  water-cress. 
CULTIVATION   AND  GROWTH. 
It  is  quite  common  for  numerous  papaw  plants  to  spring  up  from 
seeds  scattered  by  the  birds  over  a  portion  of  land  which,  accord- 
