1366 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. ~ PART III. 
Engravings. Mill. Ic, t.73,; Lam, Ill, t.86!.; N. Du Ham., t. 55.; and the plate of this tree in our 
last Volume. 
Spec. Char.,§c. Leaves palmate and subtrilobate ; rough above, pubescent 
beneath. (Willd.) A low deciduous tree, a native of the East, cultivated in 
Britain from time immemorial ; and ripening its fruit against walls, in the 
climate of London, in the month of September. 
Varieties. Botanically, the common fig may be considered as existing in three 
different states :—1. Wild,in which the leaves are comparatively small, and 
not much cut ; and the fruit small, and sometimes blue and sometimes white. 
2. Cultivated, with very large leaves, very deeply cut, such as the blue 
Ischia and the Brunswick fig, and other sorts ; the fruit of some of which is 
white,and of others dark. 3. Cultivated, with very large leaves, not much cut, 
as the white Marseilles fig, and others with fruit of different colours. Those 
who are disposed to go farther may form three subvarieties under each of 
these heads, according as the fruit is blue or black, red or purple, or 
yellow, white, or green. 
Garden Varieties. These are very numerous. Inthe Nouveau Du Hamel, a 
selection of 36 choice sorts is given, and several of them figured. In the 
Horticultural Society’s Fruit Catalogue for 1831, 89 sorts are enumerated, 
independently of synonymes. In the Encyc. of Gard., ed. 1835, a selection 
of 22 sorts is given for a large garden; and also selections for smaller gardens. 
For an arboretum in the climate of London, and to be treated as standards, we 
would recommend the wild fig (which has the leaves generally entire, and 
of which there is a standard tree in the Twickenham Botanic Garden), the 
white Marseilles, the Brunswick, and the small brown Ischia. The latter 
will, in very fine seasons, and in warm situations in the climate of London, 
ripen a few fruit on a standard in the open air. 
Description, $c. The common fig is a low, deciduous tree, rarely exceeding 
20 ft. in height as a standard, even in the south of Europe; with large deeply 
lobed leaves, rough on the upper surface, and pubescent beneath. The 
branches are clothed with short hairs, and the bark of the trunk is greenish. 
The fig is a native of the west of Asia and the shores of the Mediterranean, 
both in Europe and Atrica. In no country is it found in elevated situa- 
tions, or at a distance from the sea. Hence its abundance in the islands of 
the Archipelago, and on the shores of the adjoining continents. It has been 
cultivated from time immemorial; and, indeed, the fig was said to have been 
the first fruit eaten by man. In the Bible, we read frequently of the fig tree, 
both in the Old and New Testament. Among the Greeks, we find, by the 
laws of Lycurgus, that figs formed a part of the ordinary food of the Spartans. 
The Athenians were so choice of their figs, that they did not allow them to be 
exported ; and the informers against those who broke this law, being called 
sukophantai, from two Greek words, signifying the discoverers of figs, gave | 
rise to our modern word sycophant. The fig tree under which Romulus and ~ 
Remus were suckled, and the basket of figs in which the asp was conveyed 
to Cleopatra, are examples familiar to every one of the frequency of the allu- 
sions to this tree in ancient history. At Rome, the fig was carried next to 
the vine in the processions of Bacchus, who was supposed to have derived his 
corpulency and vigour from this fruit, and not from the grape. Pliny, also, 
recommends figs as being nutritive and restorative ; and it appears from him, 
and other ancient writers, that they were given to professed champions and 
wrestlers, to refresh and strengthen them. Pliny mentions six different kinds 
of fig, enumerating the peculiar qualities of each. 
The first fig trees planted in England are said to have been brought from 
Italy in 1548, in the reign of Henry VIIL., by Cardinal Pole, and placed by 
him against the walls of the archiepiscopai palace at Lambeth. In Miller’s 
time, these two trees covered a surface of 50 ft. in height, and 40 ft. in breadth ; 
and the diameter of the trunk of one tree was 95 in., and of the other 73 in. 
These trees were much injured by the severe winter of 1813-14; but the 
main stems being cut down, they recovered, so as in 1817 to be in tolerable 
