1370 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART Ilis 
immediately covered with sap, which thickens, and forms a mass that excludes ~ 
the air from the interior of the fruit; and the consequence is, that it ripens, 
or becomes ready to drop off, in half the time usually taken by nature, without 
losing any of its size or of its flavour, This process, Bosc observes, deserves 
a trial in France. 
The Process of Caprification is described by Tournefort ; and his description 
differs very little from that given by Pliny. It consists in inducing a certain 
species of insect of the gnat kind, which abounds on the wild fig, to enter 
the fruit of the cultivated fig, for the purpose of fecundating the fertile flowers 
in the interior of the fruit by the farina of the barren ones near its orifice. The 
details will be found given at length in Rees’s Cyclopedia; under the word 
Caprification in Martyn’s Miller; and in the Encyclopedia of Geography. 
Propagation and Culture. The fig is easily propagated by cuttings of the 
shoots or roots, not one of which will fail; and also by suckers, layers, and 
seeds. In British nurseries, it is generally propagated by layers; though 
these do not ripen their wood, the first season, so well as cuttings. When the 
fig is to be planted as a standard tree, constant attention must be paid to 
remove all suckers from its collar, and all side shoots from its stem. When 
trained against a wall in a cold climate, the branches should proceed from a 
single stem, and not from the collar, as is generally the case; because the 
plant, when so treated, produces shoots which are less vigorous, and, con- 
sequently, more likely to ripen their wood. 
Insects, Accidents, and Diseases. The fig, in hot countries, and in dry seasons, 
especially when at a distance from the sea, is apt to have its leaves and fruit 
scorched and shriveled up by the sun. It is scarcely subject to any diseases ; 
but it is liable to the attacks of the cochineal, the kermes, and psylla. In 
British gardens, it is very seldom injured by insects in the open air; but it is 
very liable to the attacks of the red spider, the coccus, and the honey-dew, 
under glass. Abundance of water, and a moist atmosphere, like that of its 
indigenous habitat, the sea shore, are perhaps the best preventives. 
\ 
Statistics. The largest standard fig trees that we know of in the neighbourhood of London are at 
Syon, Chiswick, and in the Mile End Nursery, where they are about 15ft. high. In Sussex, at 
Arundel Castle, there are several standard trees in the_old garden, 25;ft. high ; at Tarring, near 
Worthing, in the largest fig garden, there are 7( standard trees, from 12 ft. to 15ft. high. At Black- 
down House, near Haslemere, there are some fine old standard fig trees, which ripen fruit every year 
In France, in the neighbourhood of Nantes, the tree, as a standard, seldom exceeds 18 ft.in height : at 
Avignon it attains the height of 20 ft. or 25 ft. ; and, in 1819, we observed some very fine specimens in 
the garden of the Military Hospital there. In Italy, at Monza, a tree, 60 years old, is 30 ft. high ; the 
diameter of the trunk 12 ft., and of the head 60 ft. Plants, in the London nurseries, are from 1s. 6d. 
to 5s. each, according to the variety ; at Bollwyller, 2 francs each; and at New York, from 50 cents to 
1 dollar. 
Genus V. : 
ae | 
al 
BO‘YRYA W. Tue Borya. Lin. Syst. Dice'cia Di-Triandria. 
Identification. Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p.711.; Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2., vol. 5.; Lindl. Nat. Syst. of Bot., 
. 178. 
Synonymes. Adtlia Micha. Fl. Bor. Amer., 2. p.223. ; Bigeldvia Smith in Rees’s Cyclop., Addenda. 
Derivation. Named in honour of Bory de St. Vincent who visited the Mauritius and the Isle of 
Bourbon, to examine their botany. Smith, in Rees’s Cyclopedia, objects to the name of Borya 
being applied to this genus, because La Billardiére had previously given the same name to another 
genus ; and he suggests the substitution of the name of Bigeldvia, in commemoration of Dr. Bigelow 
of Boston, author of the Florula Bostoniensis, and of the American Medical Botany. The genus 
Borya Lab., and the genus Borya Willd., are both cited in Lindl. Natural System of Botany, and it 
is most probable that another name will be instituted for one of them, 
Description, §c. Deciduous shrubs, growing to the height of from 6 ft. to 
12 ft. in common garden soil, with a dark brown or purple bark, and small, 
deep green, opposite leaves. Propagated by cuttings, and quite hardy, 
¥ 1. B. ricu’strina Willd. The Privet-like Borya. 
Identification. Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. p.711.; Ait. Hort. Kew., ed. 2., vol. 5. 
Synonymes. Adé@lia lighstrina Micha. Fl. Bor. Amer., 2. p.224.; Bigeldvia ligtstrina Smith in 
Rees’s ae a Addenda, Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. 
The Sexes. The plants bearing this name in Loddiges’s arboretum have not yet flowered. 
