172 FICUS CARICA. 



wards applied to all informers, parasites, liars, fhitterers, impostcrs Ax.; hence 

 the modem word synipluint. 



The fig was a fruit imich admired by tlie Romans, who brought it from most 

 of the coinitrifs tliey conipiered, and had so increased tiie varieties in Italy, by 

 the commencement of the Christian era, that IMiny has fnrnished us witli a 

 description of twenty-nine sorts. He says, " figs arc restorative, and the best 

 fooil that can be taken by those who are brought low by long sickness, and aro 

 on the recovery." He adds, " that figs increase the strength of young people, 

 preserve the elderly in better health, and make them look younger, and with 

 fewer wrinkles. They are so nutritive as to cause corpulency and strength ; on 

 which account, professed wrestlers and champions were in times past, fed with 

 figs." This naturalist mentions the African figs, as being admired; but says, 

 "it is not long since they began to grow figs in Africa." These appear to have 

 been of an early kind; for, we find that, when Cato wished to stimulate the sen- 

 ators to declare war against Carthage, he took an early African fig in his hand, 

 and then addressing the assembly, he said, " I would demand of you how long it 

 is since this fig was plucked from the tree?" and when they all agreed that it 

 was freshly gathered, " Yes," answered Cato, " it is not yet three days since this 

 fig was gathered at Carthage; and by it, see how near to the walls of our city 

 we have a mortal enemy." With this argument, he prevailed upon them to 

 begin the tlnrd Punic war, in which Carthage, that had so long been a rival to 

 Rome, was utterly destroyed. "The Lydian figs," continues Pliny, "are of a 

 reddish-purple colour; the Rhodian, of a blackish hue; as is the Tiburtine, 

 which ripens before the others. The white figs were from Herculaneum; the 

 Chelidonian figs are the latest, and ripen against the winter; some bear twice a 

 year, and some of the Chalcidian kinds bear three times a year." The Romans 

 had figs from Chalcis and Chios, and many of their varieties, it appears, were 

 named after those who first introduced or cultivated them in Italy. For instance, 

 the " Livian Fig " was so called after Livia, wife of the Emperor Augustus, who. 

 it is said, made the unnatural use of it to poison her husband. 



The fig-tree is said to have been first brought from Italy into Britain, in 1525, 

 by Cardinal Pole; though probably it was introduced long before, by the Ro- 

 mans and the monks. The specimens, which were of the Marseilles kind, were 

 planted against the walls of the archiepiscopal palace, at Lambeth, and bore 

 excellent fruit. In the course of their long existence, they attained a size far 

 exceeding the standard fig-tree in its natural habitat, being fifty feet in height, 

 with trunks from twenty-one to twenty-eight inches in circumference, and a 

 spread of branches of forty feet. These trees were much injured by the severe 

 winter of 1813-14; but the main stems, being cut down, they recovered, so as to 

 be in tolerable vigour, in 1817; but some years since, while the palace was under 

 repair, they were destroyed. The " Pocock Fig-tree" was once supposed to have 

 been the first of the white Marseilles figs, introduced into England. The tradi- 

 tion is. that it was brought from Aleppo by Dr. Pocock, the celebrated traveller, 

 and planted in the garden of the Regius Professor of Hebrew, at Christ-Church, 

 Oxford, in the year 1648. Some of the figs of this tree were exhibited at a meet- 

 ing of the London Horticultural Society, in August, 1819 ; and others gained a 

 premium as the best white figs, at a meeting of the Oxford and Oxfordshire Hor- 

 ticultural Society, in August, 1833. In the year 1806, this tree was twenty-one 

 feet high, with a trunk three feet and a half in circumference at its upper part. 

 It received considerable damage from the fire that happened at Christ-Chnrch, on 

 the 3d of March, 1809, some time previous to which, its trunk had been covered 

 with lead to preserve it from the injuries of the weather; but at the time of the 

 fire the lead was stolen, and, soon after, the trunk itself decayed, and was prin- 

 cipally removed. In 1833, at the time Mr. Loudon visited this tree, there were 



