342 VBTICACEM 



botanical account of the Genus, the reader is referred to Dr. G 



ofFi 



97 



Chemical composition. — The bark of -PI religiosa contains 3'8 per 

 cent- of tannin, that of F. raccmosa 14-1 per cent., and that of 

 P. hengalemis 10-9 per cent. The air-dried bark of F, raccmosa 



yields 12'2 per cent, of ash^ that of F. hcngalensis 8*05 per cent,, 

 and that of F. religiosa 11*7 per cent. The tannin gives a green 

 precipitate with ferric salts. There is nothing else of interest 

 in these barks, except caoutchouc and wax. 



FICUS CARICA, Urn. 



Y'lg.—Woodv., t. 244; Steph. 8f Ch., t. Ib^-, Reich, Ic. Fl. 

 Germ. xiL, i. 659. The Fig {Emj.), Figue {Fr\ 



Hab. — Persia. Cultivated in India. The fruit. 



Vernacular. — Anjir (Hind., Guz., Mar., Beng.), Shimai-atti, 

 Ten-atti [Tam.), Shima-atti, Tene-atti (Tc^/.), Shime-atti (C^/^). 



History, Uses, &C. — The Fig holds much the same 

 place in the mythology of the West as the Pipal and Bar do 

 in Indian mythology. It has been regarded from prehistoric 

 times as an anthropogenic tree and valued for its nutritious fruit. 

 It is frequently mentioned in the sacred books of the Hebrews 

 and by early Greek and Latin writers. Hippocx'ates notices 

 it in several places as having aperient, emollient and nutiatious 

 properties, and as being useful as an article of diet m 

 phlegmatic affections. Figs were used in lustration by the 

 Greeks. The celebrated Ficus ruminalis of Rome^ appears, like 

 the Indian Asvattha [l\ religiosa), to have been regarded as a 

 cosmogonic tree. Pliny gives the following description of it : 

 ** Colitur ficus arbor in foi'o ipso ac comitio Romi« nata, sacra 

 fulguribus ibi conditis. Magisque ob memoriam ejus quse 

 nutrix fuit Romuli ac Remi conditoris appellata, quoniam sub 

 ea inventa estlupa infantibuspra^bensr7^/?i<^« (ita enira vocabant 

 7)tammam), miraculo ex acre juxta dicato, tainquam in comitium 

 sponte transisset." In the worship of Dionysus, the fig played 

 an important part; the phallus was made of its wood and the 



