ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FIG-TREE IN SYRIA, 231 
is not easily distinguished from the female; generally, however, the 
shoots are longer, the leaves smaller, and not as many as on the female 
tree; the size of the male tree too is smaller. It begins to show its 
fruit or flower early in spring, about twenty or thirty days before the female 
tree, and in a few days becomes of the size of a small elongated peary 
whereas the female flower is slower in its growth: Then it remains on 
the tree for some time, opens at the end, dries and falls, This male flower 
is white in the interior; composed of small empty vesicles, all attached 
inside the sides of the Fig by filaments, and this colour turns to a grayish 
yellow colour when mature. It is also dry inside, containing no glutinous 
or saccharine matter, and is уегу insipid to the taste. The outside green 
skin contains little or none of that white juice or milk existing in all the 
fruit Figs of this country, Not all these male flowers contain small insects, 
and very often none of the flowers of a tree contain any at all; but аз soon 
as the Fig flower opens at the end, a small kind of dust, independent of 
what insects there may be, spreads in the air as soon as the flower is 
shaken. ‘This dust is the pollen. At Aidin the male Figs are the object 
of a great trade in spring in the market, for the purpose of suspending 
them on the male trees, as all the peasants do not possess the male tree, 
Where from late cold, or some other cause, the male flower is scarce, it is 
priced very dear, one single flower fetching the price of 14 to 2 piastres, 
or more than what is paid in autumn for the dried fruit per oke, or 3 pounds 
weight. Having planted slips of the male tree, few have succeeded, and 
are still too small to judge of their product; I think two of them will be 
female trees. People of the country assure me that most of these male 
slips turn into fruit bearers by being cultivated, the fruit being of one of 
the qualities of Figs already existing 
The feniale tree, or fruit bearer, is cultivated; and as I have men- 
tioned already, if some Fig flowers are not put on it when the female 
flower begins to grow aud develop itself, the fruit soon becomes yellow, 
and falls to the ground. Sometimes a few fruit ripen, but remain of 
а size smaller than usual Where, however, one or more male trees 
are in the neighbourhood of a Fig ршен, then the fruit ripens well 
and in abundance, 
I have made some further observations with regard to the Aidin Fig- 
tree: Its cultivation has taken a very large extension in many other loca- 
lities, and in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, where many other kinds of 
Figs prosper very well These new plantations have succeeded uncom- 
monly well, but the quality of the fruit is very inferior to the generality of 
the Figs of Aidin and its neighbourhood, although the system of suspend- 
ing male flowers of savage trees on the cultivated trees is followed. 1 
thought I could distinguish on the Figs of the new plantations some of the 
characters of the kind of Fig-trees most abundant in some localities, 
with regard to shape, flavour, and size of fruit. By a series of trials too 
long to enumerate, I have found at last that by putting on the Aidin Fig- 
tree cultivated in other parts, male flowers from Aidin, the fruit becomes 
as good as if grown in Aidin itself, and in some cases even superior. 
Some indigenous-plantation owners who have tried the same at my sug- 
gestion have also succeeded very well, and will follow the System, I hope. 
