THE SYCAMORE FIG IN EGYPT 



Historic Tree is Widely Grown, and Furnishes Large Quantity of Inferior Fruit- 

 Interesting Practices of the Natives — Life History of the Fig- Wasp 



Thomas W. Brown and F. G. Walsingham 

 Cairo, Egypt 



PERHAPS no tree in the world has 

 to the same extent as the syca- 

 more occupied the pens of writers 

 from the dawn of history to the 

 present time. It was one of the sacred 

 trees of Arabia and Ancient Egypt, and 

 in oldsn times played an important part 

 in the cult of the dead. The sycamore 

 was also the tree of Hathor,the goddess 

 of love and marriage, on which account 

 the lovers of Ancient Egypt were wont 

 to tarry fondly under its branches in 

 the hope of receiving the goddess' 

 blessings. Even today, a vestige of 

 this belief can be seen in the custom of 

 women visiting the sycamore when 

 troubled with matrimonial cares. 



The sycamore is frequently men- 

 tioned in the Scriptures. The story of 

 Zaccheus climbing a sycamore tree is, 

 of course, familiar. 



Amos was probably a gatherer of 

 sycamore fruit. Muschler, in his Man- 

 ual Flora of Egypt, describes the 

 instrument used at the present time to 

 cut the fruit open in order to ripen it, 

 and in this connection he states that 

 the process as described by Pliny 

 closely corresponds with the modern 

 method and, further, that "it would 

 seem to be pretty certain that Amos 

 performed identically the same opera- 

 tion on the figs as is still done in Egypt 

 at this day." 



The word "sycamore" which is de- 

 rived from the two Greek words "Sucon' ' 

 (fig), and "moro" (mulberry), is an 

 appropriate name for this tree, because 

 the leaves are not unlike those of a 

 miilberry and the fruit closely resembles 

 that of a common fig. The tree is also 

 known as Pharaoh's fig. 



The sycamore is found throughout 

 Egypt — ^in the Delta, Nile Valley, and 



also in the Oases. It is a large evergreen 

 tree with a round symmetrical head 

 when young. The trunk is usually 

 short, and as the tree increases in age 

 the branches spread out more or less 

 horizontally to a radius of 15 to 20 

 meters. The leaves are ovate, alternate 

 and almost glabrous on both surfaces; 

 petiole about half the length of the 

 blade, furry pubescent; shoot pubescent, 

 furnished with a ring of stipular hairs 

 at the insertion of each leaf. The bark 

 retains its herbaceous character for 

 several years, eventually becoming gray- 

 ish-brown in color, but without any 

 fissures. 



The fruit is borne almost entirely on 

 specialized leafless branches, which arise 

 on the ordinary vegetative branches. 

 Rarely, a few figs are borne on the leaf- 

 bearing shoots. The fruiting shoots 

 generally appear first at points on the 

 vegetative branches where the latter 

 have a diameter of about 6 cm., although 

 occasionally they are found on smaller 

 branches. The internodes of the fruit- 

 ing shoots are almost wholly suppressed 

 so that growth in length is very slow. 

 Secondary shoots are given off in a 

 racemose manner at irregular intervals 

 until a dense, much-divided fruiting 

 branch is formed. These branches 

 attain a length of about 30 cm. They 

 persist for many years and may be 

 found on the mother branches when 

 the latter have attained a diameter of 

 30 to 40 cm. 



FLOWERS ARE PECULIAR 



Flowers of the fig trees commence 

 bearing at the age of 5 to 6 years. 

 The figs arise singly or in pairs in the 

 axils of the fugacious scale-leaves of the 

 fruit -bearing shoots. They attain a 



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