308 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



3. FICUS, L. Fig. 



Trees, with milky juice, naked buds, stout branchlets, thick fleshy roots frequently 

 produced rrom the branches and developing into supplementary stems. Leaves alter- 

 nate, involute in the bud, entire, penniveined, persistent; stipules inclosing the leaf 

 in a slender sharp-pointed bud-like cover, interpetiolar, embracing the leaf-bearing 

 axis and inclosing the young leaves, deciduous. Flower-bearing receptacle subglobose 

 to ovoid, sessile or stalked, solitary by abortion or in pairs in the axils of existing or 

 fallen leaves, surrounded at the base by 3 anterior bracts distinct or united into an 

 involucral cup bearing on the interior at the apex numerous rows of minute trian- 

 gular viscid bracts closing the orifice, those of the lower rows turned downward and 

 infolding the upper flowers, those immediately above these horizontal and forming 

 a more or less prominent umbilicus. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, the pedicels 

 thickening and becoming succulent with the ripening of the fruit, unisexual, often sep- 

 arated by chaffy scales or hairs; calyx of the staminate flower usually divided into 

 2-6 sepals; stamens 1; filaments short, erect; anther innate, ovate, broad and sub- 

 rotund, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally, in the pistillate flower; sepals or 

 lobes of the calyx of the pistillate flower usually narrower than those of the stami- 

 nate flower; ovary sessile, erect, or oblique, surmounted by the lateral elongated 

 style crowned by a 2-lobed stigma; ovule suspended from the apex or lateral below 

 the apex of the cell, anatropous. Fruit drupaceous, mostly immersed in the thick- 

 ened succulent receptacle, obovoid or reniform; flesh thin, mucilaginous; nutlet with 

 a flat crustaceous minutely tuberculate shell. Seed suspended ; testa membranaceous; 

 embryo incurved, in thin fleshy albumen; cotyledons equal or unequal, longer than 

 the incumbent radicle. 



Ficus, of which six hundred species have been described, is largely distributed 

 through the tropics of both hemispheres, the largest number of species being found 

 on the islands of the Indian Archipelago and the Pacific Ocean. A few species extend 

 beyond the tropics into southern Florida, Mexico, Argentina, southern Japan and 

 China, the countries bordering the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, and South 

 Africa. Two species of the section Urostigma with moncecious flowers occur in trop- 

 ical Florida. Ficus Carica, L., probably a native of the Mediterranean basin, is cul- 

 tivated in the southern states and in California for its large sweet succulent fruits, 

 the figs of commerce. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Receptacles subglobose, sessile or short-stalked ; leaves oblong, usually pointed at the 

 ends. 1. F. aurea (D). 



Receptacles oblong, long or short-stalked ; leaves broadly ovate, cordate at the base. 



2. F. populnea (D). 



1. Ficus aurea, Nutt. "Wild Fig. 



Leaves oblong, usually narrowed at the ends, acute or acuminate, with short 

 broad points at the apex, wedge-shaped or rarely broad and rounded at the base, 

 2'-5' long, l^'-3' wide, thick and coriaceous, dark yellow-green and lustrous above, 

 paler and less lustrous below, with broad light yellow midribs slightly grooved on 

 the upper side and numerous obscure primary veins arcuate and united near the 

 margins, and connected by fine closely reticulated veinlets, continuing to unfold 

 during a large part of the year, and usually falling during their second season ; their 



