THE PAPAW-Carica papaya.

Though the papaw-tree is now found in the East as well as in the West, it is generally understood to be a native of America, and to have been carried to the East about the time of the first intercourse between the two continents. The papaw rises with a hollow stem to the height of about twenty feet, after which it has a head composed, not of branches, but of leaves and very long foot-stalks. The male and female flowers are on different trees: the female flowers are bell-shaped, large, generally yellow, and followed by a fleshy fruit, about the size of a small melon. The tree, and even the fruit, are full of an acrid milky juice; but the fruit is eaten with sugar and pepper, like melon; and when the half-grown fruit is properly pickled, it is but little inferior to the pickled mango of the East Indies. There are many

forms in the fruit, and some varieties in the colour of the flower of the papaw and there is also a dwar species; though, as this has been observed chiefly in acrid situations, it may be the common sort stunted for want of moisture.

GRENADILLAS-Passiflora.

The passifloras are a very numerous race; they are mostly natives of the West Indies and the tropical parts of America, from which some of the species have been introduced into this country, chiefly on Few of the account of the beauty of their flowers. species bear fruit in this country.

The grenadillas with which we are best acquainted are those of the West India islands, the chief of which are the purple-fruited (Passiflora edulis)

the Passiflora quadrangularis-and the water-lemon (Passiflora laurifolia). The stem of the first is herbaceous, the fruit round, of a light purple, when ripe, with a whitish and rather pleasant pulp. The Passiflora quadrangularis is the most valuable for cultivation here; and it has borne fruit in the gardens of the Horticultural Society. The water-lemon is a larger and more woody plant: the flowers are handsome, and very fragrant; and the fruit something in the shape and of the size of a lemon, full of a watery but very agreeable tasted juice, whence the name. The plant grows wild in the woods, but is often cultivated for the sake of its fruit. It was introduced into England about the same time with the pineapple, but it has not met with equal attention.

On the American continent, and especially in Brazil, where the productions of the vegetable kingdom are very numerous and luxuriant, there are many varieties of grenadilla, if not distinct species, with which botanists do not appear to be very well acquainted; indeed, the forests and savannahs of Brazil appear to offer the richest harvest for botanical research of any places now on the surface of the globe. Piso, in his natural history of Brazil, enumerates and gives figures of several sorts of grenadilla, under the name of Murucuja. One, he says, has five-lobed leaves and purple flowers, with oblong fruit, larger than any European pear, filled with a mucilaginous pulp, of a scent and flavour that nothing can exceed. Another has the same leaf and flavour, but fruit in the form and size of an apple, the pulp of which has a vinous flavour. There are many other sorts, but these are described as the best. The grenadillas generally, which are called parchas by the Spaniards, have a pleasant sweetish acid, with a fragrance something between that of a melon and a strawberry.

COCOA-NUT-Cocos.

The cocoa-palm is supposed to be a native of the south-east of Asia, and is found wild in some of the small islands off the shores; but it has been introduced into almost every part of the tropical regions. Its quality of bearing the neighbourhood of sea water is very favourable to its migrations. There are five species enumerated and described by the botanists; but the most valuable is the cocos nucifera, or cocoatree, properly so called.

The nucifera is a very tall tree, the trunk of which is composed of hard and strong fibres, which cross each other like net-work. There are, strictly speaking, no branches; but the leaves are from twelve to fourteen feet long, with a very strong middle rib, to each side of which the sword-shaped leafets are attached. The flowers come out round the top of the trunk, each cluster inclosed in a long spatha or sheath. When these have arrived at maturity, the sheath opens, and the male flowers gradually fall off, leaving the embryo fruit. In a moist and fertile soil the cocoa-palm bears in four years; in a dry region fruit is not produced

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The fruit consists

till it has been planted ten years. externally of a thin but tough rind, of a brownish-red colour; beneath which there is a quantity of very tough fibrous matter, of which cordage and coarse sail-cloth are sometimes made. Burckhardt says that ships coming from the East Indies to Djidda have cordage made of the cocoa-nut tree. Inclosed within this fibrous mass is the shell, of great firmness, and used for many domestic purposes. While the nut is green, the whole hollow of the shell is filled with an agreeable, sweetish, refreshing liquor. When the nut is gathered, a formation of albumen takes place upon the inside of the shell, producing that white, firm, pleasant-tasted, but rather indigestible, substance, which is called the kernel of the nut. Like the kernels of most nuts, that of the cocoa is very nutritious, from the great quantity of fixed oil that it contains; but that is also the ingredient to which its indigestible quality is owing. A tree generally furnishes about an hundred cocoas. The stem of the cocoa-nut tree is very tough and durable, and used for constructing the abodes of the people in the warm countries where it grows, and the leaves are employed as thatch; while the ribs answer the same purpose as osiers in the making of baskets and other wickerwork. The tender shoots at the top of the cocoa-nut tree may be used as esculents, and are very tender and delicate; but they are costly, as they cannot be obtained except at the expense of the tree.

The finest arrack in the East Indies is made from the juice of the cocoa-nut tree. This juice, before it is distilled, is called toddy; and those trees from which it is to be obtained are not suffered to bear fruit. There are two ways of obtaining the toddy: they either cut off the monthly shoot from which the fruit would be produced, and collect the sap in jars from the wound; or they make a perforation in the trunk