CA'RICA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Papayacem One of the species, C. Papaya, is a remarkable tree found in various parts of South America, with a simple unbranehed erect trunk, from 12 to 20 feet high, abounding in a milky juice, having broad 7.lobed leaves a foot nt least long, and unisexual flowers, the males of which are monopetalous, with ten short stamens inserted in the mouth of the corolla ; the females polypetalous, with n single ovary, having a starry sort of stigma. The fruit is thus described by Hooker in the `Botanical Magazine:' "The corolla falls away, and the germen In coming to maturity becomes pendent ; the tree, too, advancing in height casts its lower leaves from below the flowers, and I the fruit constituting a large oblong kind of berry, or more correctly speaking pepo, rests suspended upon the leafless part of the trunk, much in the same way as that of theA rtocarpus, or Bread-Fruit. The surface, when the fruit is ripe, is a pale and rather dingy orange yellow, obscurely furrowed, and often rough with little elevated points. The flesh is very thick, coloured, but paler than the outside, and there passes through it longitudinally five bundles of vessels. In the centre is a considerable cavity, with five longitudinal ridges, and these are thickly clothed with numerous seeds." This fruit is called the Papaw, and is accounted of considerable interest in the tropical part of the world. An excellent history of its uses is compiled in the work already quoted, from which we borrow the following : " The papaw-tree is of rapid growth. St. Pierre probably spoke from his own knowledge when he described Virginia as having planted a seed which in three years' time produced a trunk 20 feet high, with its upper part loaded with ripe fruit. It is for the sake of this fruit mainly that the plant is cultivated ; but if the flavour were not better than that yielded by what ripened in our stove, I cannot recommend it. as at all agreeable." Brown, in his 'Natural History of Jamaica,' tells us that "it has a pleasant sweetish taste, and is much liked by many people; that while young it is commonly used for sauce ; and when boiled and mixed with lime-juice and auger is not unlike or much inferior to that made of real apples, for which it is conunonlyaub atituted." In the opinion of Sloane it is not a very pleasant fruit, even when helped with pepper and sugar ; and thd more ordinary use, he adds, of this fruit is before it is ripe, when, as large as one fist, it is cut into slices, soaked in water till the milky juice is out, and then boiled and eaten as turnips or baked as apples. The juice of the pulp,
according to Descourtilz, in the Fiore Medicale des Antilles,' is used as a cosmetic to remove freckles on the skin caused by the sun; and the negroes in the French colonies employ the leaves to wash their linen, instead of soap. Aa a medicinal plant the Papaw-Tree is parti cularly deserving of notice. Hernandez long ago spokt of the milky juice of the unripe fruit as a powerful vermifuge, which has been con firmed by 31. Charpentier Cosaigni, as mentioned in the Asiatic Researches' by Dr. Fleming (vol. ii. p. 162). A single dose, that gen tleman says, is sufficient to cure the disease however abundant the worms may be. Another French writer (Poup6e Desportes) recom mends the use of the seed instead of the juice. But the most extra ordinary property of the Papaw-Tree is that which is related, first I believe by Brown, in his Natural History of Jamaica,' namely, that "water impregnated with the milky juice of this tree is thought to make all aorta of meat washed in it very tender; but eight or ten minutes steeping, it is said, will make it so soft that it will drop in pieces from the spit before it is well roasted or turn soon to rags in the boiling." Mr. Neill mentioned this circumstance more fully in his interesting Horticultural Tour through Holland and the Nether lands ;' and it has repeatedly been confirmed to me by gentlemen of this country who have been long resident in the West Indies, and who speak of the employment of the juice for such a purpose as of quite a general occurrence ; and more, that old hogs and old poultry which are fed upon the leaves and fruit, however tough the meat they afford might otherwise be, are thus rendered perfectly tender, and good too, if eaten as soon as killed, but that the flesh very soon passes into a state of putridity. The juice causes a separation of the muscular fibres. Nay, the very vapour of the tree serves the purpose; hence many people suspend the joints of meat, fowls, &c. in the upper part of the tree in order to prepare them for the table. Such is the effect upon hogs that feed upon the fruit, that the good housewives reject the flesh of such if it is destined for salting, well knowing that it is not sufficiently firm for that purpose.