74 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



Insects and Diseases. — Red-spider and tlirips are the cliief insects that 

 infest the foliage of the Fig. The former is sure to attack them if they 

 are kept too dry at the root and the syringe is not freely used, hut 

 it rarely becomes formidable when the trees are sufficiently supplied 

 with moisture. Thrips must be kept in check by occasional fumiga- 

 tions with tobacco-smoke, but never when the fruit are ripe, as they 

 will taste of the tobacco. The Fig, as far as I know, is exempt from 

 disease. 



Packing Figs. — To pack ripe Figs to go safely to a distance requires 

 great care. Tin boxes divided into compartments, as directed in the 

 case of Peaches, are indispensable if the fruit are to be allowed to ripen 

 and to be carried without mutilation. The compartments, of course, 

 need not be so large as for Peaches. Into each put some fine paper- 

 shavings, then a layer of cotton wadding, and over the wadding a 

 square of tissue-paper sufficiently large to come up the sides of the 

 compartments to the top ; wrap each fruit in a tender dry Vine-leaf 

 and lay it in its place, covering it over with another leaf to keep the 

 paper from contact with the fruit. Then double the tissue-paper over 

 all, fill up with cotton wool, lay a little paper-shavings all over the 

 surface of the box, and screw the lid down. "When Figs have to be 

 packed, it is best to gather the fruit before the juice begins to ooze out 

 of them, but not till they rend slightly at the sides. 



Varieties of Figs. — In order to keep up a constant succession of 

 ripe Figs for a good many months of the year, as treated of in former 

 papers, not very many varieties are necessary. Taking into consider- 

 ation the fruitfulness and good qualities of Figs in cultivation, I do 

 not know of any so thoroughly satisfactory as the old and well-known 

 Brown Turkey, White Marseilles (Raby Castle), Grosse Verte, 

 Eourjassotte Grisie. These four are sj^^^ndid varieties for both pot- 

 culture and fruiting in borders. Some smaller varieties are extreme- 

 ly fruitful, such as Black Provence, CEil de Perdrix, White Ischia, 

 and others ; but they are small, and not so desirable as those first 

 named. Mr Barron, Garden Superintendent at the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Gardens, who has had great opportunities of forming an 

 opinion, and who has excelled in the pot-culture of the Fig, in writ- 

 ng regarding keeping up a rich and varied supply from a house de- 

 voted to the cultivation of the Fig in pots, and where the collection is 

 limited to say fifty plants, gives the following as his selection for 

 keeping up a continuous supply of ripe fruit from June to Christmas. 

 The varieties he puts into groups thus, showing how they will give a 

 supply of fruit in each month. "July — White Marseilles, De la 

 Madeleine, Gros Monstrueuse de Lipardi, Brown Turkey. August — 

 White Marseilles, Lee's Perpetual (Brown Turkey), De Lipardi. 



