Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/54

 PAPAW PAPAW (Fr. papayer), a name applied to two very different trees and their fruits, the one purely tropical, the other North American, and especially belonging to the middle states. The common papaw of this country is asimi- na triloba, of the custard-apple family or ano- nacecB, a family of trees and shrubs having alternate leaves, without stipules ; flower of a calyx with three sepals, and six petals in two rows; stamens numerous, with short filaments and several pistils, separate or coherent, ripen- ing into a fleshy or pulpy fruit. The family, except one genus, is tropical ; the soursop, cherimoyer, and other favorite fruits of warm countries belong to it. (See CUSTARD APPLE.) Our genus asimina derives its name from the fact that the papaw was called asiminier by the French colonists; in the older botanical works it is variously called anona, porcelia, orckidocarpum, and uvaria ; there are four species of asimina, r all except the papaw (A. triloba) being low shrubs, a form in which this is frequently found, but in favorable localities in the southwestern states it is a tree 30 ft. high, with a diameter of 6 in. or more; the presence of large papaw trees is regarded as indicative of a soil of great fertility. The trunk has a gray smooth bark, and the young shoots are covered with a rusty down, but soon become smooth ; the thin obovate-lanceolate leaves are 6 to 9 in. long with short petioles ; the flowers, which appear before or with the leaves, are an inch and a half across, the outer petals three or four times as long as the calyx, dull purple and veiny when fully developed, but greenish or yellowish at first ; the pistils few, ripening from one to four large pulpy fruits, which contain numerous horizontal seeds. The wood is soft, spongy, and of no value ; but the inner bark, which is very tough, is a strong tying material. The fruit, ripening usually in rows of four to nine in each ; these at matu- rity are invested by a fleshy arillus, and all imbedded in the flesh of the fruit, which when completely ripened is of a soft, custard-like consistency and very sweet; the albumen of Papaw (Asimina triloba). September, is 3 or 4 in. long and about a third as thick, uneven as if slightly swollen in places, its rather tender skin yellow when quite ripe ; within are large flat seeds, arranged in two Papaw, Fruit. the seeds is divided into plates by the projec- tion into its substance of the inner seed coat, producing the kind of albumen called rumina- ted, of which the nutmeg is a familiar exam- ple. The fruit is considered too sweet and mawkish by many, while some prefer it to the banana. Some trees produce in the wild state fruit of superior size and excellence, and doubt- less it could be greatly improved by selection and cultivation. The resemblance in the taste of the fruit to that of the tropical papaw is probably the reason for its bearing the name. In some localities the fruit has been ferment- ed and distilled to produce a spirituous liquor. The tree is hardy near Boston, Mass., and in central Michigan, and is sufficiently ornamental to have a place in a large collection. The re- maining species are not found north of North Carolina, and extend southward to Florida. The small-flowered papaw (A. parmflora) is 2 to 5 ft. high, with greenish purple flowers half an inch across, and a fruit the size of a plum. The large-flowered papaw {A. grandiflora) is only 2 or 3 ft. high, with leaves 3 in. long, and the flowers, about 4 in. across, yellowish white. In the preceding species, the flowers appear in the axils of the leaves of the previous year, or rather just above the scars left by them, but in the dwarf papaw (A. pygmcea) they are pro- duced in the axils of the present leaves ; this grows in pine barrens to the height of 3 ft., but often flowers when less than 1 ft. high ; it leaves are variable in size, and in the far soul nearly evergreen ; the flowers are pale yello the inner petals purplish within. The tropi( papaw is Carica papaya. The genus Caric (so named because thought erroneously to be native of Caria) was formerly placed in a small family, the papayacem ; but this, with several other small orders, has been by Hooker and