Flora Medica

PAPAYACEJE.Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 69.CARICA.221. C. Papaya Linn, sp.pl. 1466. Bot. reg. t. 459. JBot.Mag. tt. 2898, 2899. Roxb.fi.ind. iii. 824-. W. and A. i. 352.(RJieed. i. t. 15. t. 1 and 2. Rumf. i. t. 50.) Tropical partsof America ;cultivated commonly in India.An upright unbranched tree, with the foliage large and confined tothe top of the tree ; every part yielding a slightly acrid and somewhatmilky juice. Stem 20 feet high and more, cylindrical, or generallythickened towards the base, with a pale greyish, rather smooth, scarredbark. Leaves spreading, often a foot in length, stalked, heart-shapedin their circumscription, cut into 7 oblong, sinuated, or laciniate andalmost pinnatifid, rarely entire lobes, acute at the points, the middleone the longest and the most divided, glabrous on both sides, darkgreen above, beneath much lighter, with prominent veins. Petiole 1or 2 feet long, glabrous, cylindrical. Flowers (male), axillary, inslightly compound racemes or panicles, several inches long. Pedunclesand pedicels terete, glabrous. Calyx very minute, a little concave,with 5 very small teeth. Corolla infundibuliform, 1-1J inch long,yellowish white, thickish, subcoriaceous ; tube cylindrical; limb cutinto 5 imbricated oblong lacinia?. Stamens 10, inserted into the mouthof the tube, and all on the same line, 5 nearly sessile opposite thesegments, the 5 others with evident filaments, which are white, hairy,thickened upwards anthers of : 2, linear-oblong, channelled cells.Abortive pistilsmall. Ovary oblong : style subulate : stigma none.Female flowers in short simple racemes, upon a different tree from themale, or occasionally on the same ; and, indeed, according to Trew, theflowers are sometimes hermaphrodite. Calyx as in the male. Corollamuch longer than in the male, of a yellower colour, cut nearly to thebase into 5, oblong, moderately spreading segments, or, if we may trustthe figures, pentapetalous. Ovary large, ovate, oblong, green:stigmasnearly sessile, of 5, radiate, cuneated and fimbriated, yellowish-greenlobes. The corolla falls away, and the ovary, in coming to maturitybecomes pendent: the tree, too, advancing in height, casts its lowerleaves from beneath the flowers; and the fruit constituting a largeoblong pepo, rests suspended upon the leafless part of the trunk, verymuch in the same way as that of the Artocarpus. The surface, whenthe fruit is ripe,is a pale and rather dingy orange yellow, obscurelyfurrowed, and often rough with little elevated points. The flesh is verythick, coloured, but paler than the outside ;and there pass through it,longitudinally, 5 bundles of vessels. In the centre is a considerablecavity, with 5 longitudinal ridges ;and these are thickly clothed withnumerous seeds about as large as those of hemp, roundish, compressed,almost black, but covered with a transversely wrinkled, loose, greyishskin or aril, and enveloped in mucus. Albumen fleshy. Embryo107