A Voyage to New Holland by William Dampier
page 36 of 124 (29%)
page 36 of 124 (29%)
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thing, both in colour and taste; from whence probably it is called a
custard-apple by our English. It has in the middle a few small black stones or kernels; but no core, for it is all pulp. The tree that bears this fruit is about the bigness of a quince-tree, with long, small, and thick-set branches spread much abroad: at the extremity of here and there one of which the fruit grows upon a stalk of its own about 9 or 10 inches long, slender and tough, and hanging down with its own weight. A large tree of this sort does not bear usually above 20 or 30 apples, seldom more. This fruit grows in most countries within the tropics, I have seen of them (though I omitted the description of them before) all over the West Indies, both continent and islands; as also in Brazil, and in the East Indies. The papaw too is found in all these countries, though I have not hitherto described it. It is a fruit about the bigness of a musk-melon, hollow as that is, and much resembling it in shape and colour, both outside and inside: only in the middle, instead of flat kernels, which the melons have, these have a handful of small blackish seeds about the bigness of peppercorns; whose taste is also hot on the tongue somewhat like pepper. The fruit itself is sweet, soft and luscious, when ripe; but while green it is hard and unsavoury: though even then being boiled and eaten with salt-pork or beef, it serves instead of turnips and is as much esteemed. The papaw-tree is about 10 or 12 foot high. The body near the ground may be a foot and a half or 2 foot diameter; and it grows up tapering to the top. It has no branches at all, but only large leaves growing immediately upon stalks from the body. The leaves are of a roundish form and jagged about the edges, having their stalks or stumps longer or shorter as they grow near to or further from the top. They begin to spring from out of the body of the tree at about 6 or 7 foot height from the ground, the trunk being bare below: but above that the leaves grow thicker and larger |
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