Figs 3 



wood. It lives sometimes to a great age and then 

 reaches large dimensions. It may be uncommonly pro- 

 ductive and is said to bear at times a fruit in every 

 leaf -axil, though part of such a huge crop is apt to drop 

 before maturity. 



As in the case of most cultivated fruits there are 

 many varieties. Besides the common fig, called mis- 

 sion figs in California, and the well-known Smyrnas, 

 a California writer lists Adriatic, Eriocyne, Cordelia, 

 and San Pedro figs. The popular distinction into two 

 kinds is on the basis of color, purple or "black" figs and 

 yellow or "white" figs. The former are usually less 

 sweet and are consumed while fresh. The figs which 

 come dried and packed in boxes or "drums," such as 

 the imported Smyrna figs, are of the white variety. 

 They are preserved like raisins or dates by their own 

 high sugar content. 



The fig fruit is a hollow, fleshy receptacle, with a 

 small opening or "eye" in the top furnishing the only 

 point of entry to the interior cavity. Ordinarily this 

 opening is almost entirely closed and barred on the 

 inside by a zone of small, interlocking scales. The 

 inner wall of the receptacle bears the very numerous, 

 small, simple flowers which in the edible fig are all of 

 the female or pistillate kind, more or less perfect. As 

 these grow old and elongate, they completely fill the 

 cavity. Each one of them normally matures a single 

 small dry seed which in some cultivated figs is always 

 sterile, in others fertile when the flowers have been 

 pollinated. The fruit of some varieties of the culti- 

 vated fig "ripens," i. e., the receptacle becomes soft, 

 fleshy and edible, without pollination. The fruit of 

 others will not ripen unless pollinated. 



Pollination is a normal occurrence in the wild fig 

 only. This, in contrast to the edible fig {Ficus) bears 

 partly inedible fruit and is known as the goats-fig-tree, 



[3] 



