DR. G. KING ON THE GENUS FICUS. 43 
6 distinct pieces, or gamophyllous, 2- to 6-partite, or absent ; 
achenes more or less obovoid or reniform, rarely globular, with a 
minutely tuberculate or undulate hard pericarp, often with a 
glairy or mucilaginous outer coat; the seed pendulous, with small 
albumen, the embryo more or less curved. Gall-flowers similar 
to the fertile females, but not containing embryos, aud often 
occupied by the pupa of an Hemipterous insect; the ovary ovoid 
or globular, its pericarp thin and membranous, or thick, brittle, 
and crustaceous ; the style shorter than in the fertile female, 
often dilated above into a more or less trumpet-shaped false 
stigma. Neuter flowers (occurring only in the section Synccia) 
pedicellate, with perianth like the males, asexual. 
Trees or shrabs with milky juice; leaves alternate, rarely 
opposite, stipulate, entire, serrate, dentate, or lobed, smooth, 
hairy, or scabrid; the leaf-buds sometimes covered by deciduous 
leaf-scales. Receptacles usually homo- rarely di-morphous, 
closed at the mouth by numerous scales arranged in rows, the 
uppermost of which often partly project externally and form an 
umbilicus ; the base rounded or narrowed and usually subtended 
by three bracts, sessile or pedunculate, in pairs in the axils of the 
leaves or of the scars of fallen leaves, solitary by abortion, or in 
fascicles from tubercles (shortened branchlets) from the main 
branches or stem, or on long subaphyllous branches proceeding 
from the stem near its base. 
My observations have been made almost exclusively on Indo- 
Malayan and Chinese species ; and in my forthcoming monograph 
of these species I have arranged them in sections of which the 
following are the characters :— 
I. Paleomorphe.—Male flowers with 1 stamen and a rudi- 
mentary pistil occupying the same receptacles as the gall-flowers ; 
fertile female flowers alone in another set of receptacles ; perianth 
of fertile females usually gamophyllous (of separate pieces in 
F. gibbosa and F. Decaisneana).—Small trees, erect or subscandent 
shrubs. . 
II. Urostigma.—Male, fertile female, and gall-flowers in the 
same receptacle; stamen 1 (stamens 2 in F. callosa and F. vascu- 
losa); stigma elongate, usually acute.— Usually trees or pow erful 
climbers; epiphytal at least in early life ; leaves alternate, entire, 
coriaceous or subcoriaceous, rarely membranous; receptacles in 
the axils of the leaves or of the scars of fallen leaves, tribracteate 
at the base (except in F. Kurzii, F. nervosa, and F. pubinervis). 
