14 



FLORA OF THE 



THE FIG {Ficus caricd). 



This is easily distinguishable on the monuments by 

 its leaves and the flat pear-shaped outline of its fruit. 

 Indeed they probably had more than one variety, for 

 in Layard's drawings of Nineveh some fig trees are 

 shown with digitate and others with palmate leaves, 

 as shown in fie. 8. 



Fig. 8. — a, from pi. 15 ; b, from pi. 20 ; c, from pi. 22 ; 

 Layard's Monuments, 2nd series. 



The fig tree in those days must have been growing 

 wild in many places, for De Candolle (p. 295) says: — 

 " In our own day the fig tree grows wild, or nearly 

 wild, over a vast region, of which Syria is about the 

 centre ; that is to say, from the East of Persia, or 

 even from Afghanistan, across the whole of the 

 Mediterranean region as far as the Canaries. 



