DR. G. KING ON THE GENUS FICUS. 27 
SUMMARY. 
The following are the more important results obtained :— 
(1) Turgescent pith placed in water increases in length, at first 
slowly, then more quickly ; and then again the rate of increase 
becomes slow. 
(2) The rate of increase in length increases as the temperature 
of the water rises, reaches an optimum, and suddenly falls as a 
temperature sufficient to cause flaccidity is approached. 
(3) The following reagents cause distinct acceleration :— 
Alcohol, ether, ammonia, hydrocyanie acid. The first three 
cause a very temporary effect, whereas prussic acid has a pro- 
longed action. 
(4) The following reagents produced retardation :—Acetic acid, 
hydrochloric aeid, and probably nitric acid. 
(5) Dilute solutions of quinine chloride, and of carbolic 
acid, produce a remarkably rapid shortening of the pith. 
Observatious on the Genus Ficus, with special refereyee to the 
Indo-Malayan and Chinese Species. By G. KrNe, M.B., 
LL.D., F.L.S. Superintendent Royal Botanic Garden, 
Calcutta. 
[Read 17th March, 1887.] 
Tur genus Ficus was founded by Linneus, and in the first 
edition of his ‘Species Plantarum’ he described seven species, 
four of which are Indian. By the time Sprengel’s ‘Systema’ 
appeared (1825 to 1828) the number of species had risen to 118, 
of which 50 were from the Indo-Malayan region. In 1825 
Blume’s ‘ Bijdragen ' was published, and in it there are descrip- 
tions of 93 species of Malayan Figs, of which 82 were described 
for the first time. Roxburgh’s ‘ Flora Indica, although com- 
pleted before the author's death in 1815, was not published until 
1832, and in it 55 Indian species are described. Of these 
species, 41 bore Roxburgh’s name as their author; but only 
about 15 of them had previously been undescribed. Although 
Gaertner had given a fairly good description of the achenes of 
F. Carica and F. religiosa, yet between the time of Linnæus 
and that of Roxburgh systematic writers had paid but little 
attention to the structure of the flowers and to the mode of their 
