278. _The PAWPAW is a fruit about the size of a small melon, but of very various shape, the production of a species of palm-tree_ (carica papaya), _which grows in tropical climates, both of the eastern and western parts of the world._ _The tree is twenty feet and upwards in height; naked almost to the summit; and marked, through its whole length, with the scars of fallen leaves. Its leaves are on foot-stalks two feet in length, and deeply divided into seven, nine, or eleven large lobes. The flowers are axillary, white, and sweet scented._ In shape the _fruit_ of the pawpaw-tree is sometimes angular, and flattened at both ends; sometimes oval or round; and sometimes pyramidal. When ripe it is of yellow colour; and contains a yellow succulent pulp, of sweetish taste, and aromatic smell, with many black or brown and furrowed seeds. This fruit is seldom eaten raw, but when boiled it is esteemed a wholesome sauce for fresh meat. The inhabitants of the countries where it is found sometimes preserve it in sugar, with oranges, and small citrons. Thus prepared, it may be kept a long time; and, in this state, it is not unfrequently brought into Europe. When about half grown, the pawpaw is sometimes pickled in vinegar with spices. The fruit of the trifid-fruited custard apple (_annona triloba_) is called pawpaw in some parts of America. The _bark_ of the pawpaw-tree is manufactured by the Indians into cordage. The _leaves_ are used in place of soap; and water-pipes are sometimes made of the _stem_ of the tree. TRIOECIA. 279. _The FIG is the pulpy fruit of a shrub, or low tree_ (Ficus carica, Fig. 83), _which is a native of the South of Europe, and some parts of Asia._ _Fig-trees are branched from the bottom, and the leaves are large, smooth, and irregularly divided into from three to five deep and rounded lobes. The fruit grows on short and thick stalks, of purplish colour, and contains a soft, sweet, and fragrant pulp, intermixed with numerous small seeds._ It appears from history, both sacred and profane, that the fig-tree was an object of attention in the earliest times. This fruit was one of the most common and favourite aliments of the ancient Greeks, and constituted a very valuable food with the peasants of some parts of Italy. Fig-trees are now much cultivated in Turkey, Italy, and the Levant, as well as in Spain and some of the southern parts of France. All the islands of the Archipelago yield figs in abundance, but these are in general of very inferior quality. The trees are propagated either by suckers, by layers, or by cuttings; and the process of increasing and ripening the fruit is an art which requires much attention. This, as it is practised in the Levant, is called _caprification_, and is performed by wounding the buds of the figs, with a straw or feather dipped in sweet oil at a certain period of their growth.