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Story  of  the  Papaw, 
Am.  Jour.  Pharu  . 
June,  3901. 
The  only  cultivation  they  can  possibly  receive  must  come  from 
a  little  house  waste  promiscuously  thrown  from  the  hut,  the  brows- 
ing of  the  ever  present  dogs,  asses  and  goats.  But  under  these 
conditions  fruiting  is  generally  abundant.  They  exhibit  somewhat 
the  characteristics  of  the  melon  tribe.  The  young  plants  are 
exceedingly  sensitive  and  tender  ;  under  slight  adverse  conditions 
they  succumb  and  die.6 
A  place  where  it  never  rains  but  always  pours  seems  best  suited 
to  the  papaw.  My  records  show  the  most  thrifty  trees  in  spots 
where  it  rains  nearly  every  day  in  the  year ;  pouring,  soaking  rains 
with  a  fierce,  bright  sun  shining  all  through  the  downpour.  After 
the  rain  come  the  insects,  lizards,  centipedes  and  other  creeping 
things  that  delve  among  the  roots  and  climb  up  the  stalk  of  the  papaw 
and  do  the  real  cultivation.  The  plant  will  not  flourish  in  swampy 
nor  sandy  soil,  and  seems  to  be  at  its  best  in  the  rich  humus  of  the 
hillside.7 
It  grows  at  the  edge  of  the  sea  with  the  waves  washing  the  roots, 
luxuriates  in  the  high  mountain  plateaus  in  all  of  the  windward  and 
leeward  islands ;   it  flourishes  but  does  not  attain  to  any  great 
6  Professor  Rusby  ("  Carica  Papaya,"  Druggists'  Bulletin)  has  stated  that 
this  tree  "  can  be  propagated  and  grown  with  great  readiness  ;  that  its  vitality  • 
is  so  great  that  it  is  with  difficulty  destroyed  until  its  natural  course  has  been 
run."  Six  years'  observation  has  convinced  me  that  it  is  exceedingly  difficult 
of  cultivation,  and  that  the  cultivated  trees  are  most  easily  destroyed  by 
adverse  conditions. 
7  The  following  is  an  incomplete  analysis  of  a  plot  in  Jamaica  on  which 
were  several  fine  specimens  of  the  papaw  : 
Water  (in  air-dry  sample)   5"o2 
Volatile  matter   20*12 
Silica   32"72 
Lime  (as  oxide)   10*62 
Magnesia  (oxide)   i*oo 
Potash  (oxide)     "52 
Sodium,  trace  
Magnesia,  trace  
Aluminum  (and  iron)   8'64 
Carbonates  (CO)2   5'8i 
Phosphoric  acid                                                                ...  10*20 
Sulphates,  trace  
8  In  Ver  ezuela  thrifty  spec:mens  are  cultivated  in  the  sandy  soil  of  the 
ravines.  There  is  here,  however,  a  rainfall  averaging  one  metre  per  annum 
and  the  climate  is  very  equable. 
