MORACEAE. 37 
Ficus. Fig. 
(Family Moraceae). 
Rather small trees (for our 
purpose) and _ deciduous: sap 
milky. Twigs rather stout, round- 
ed: pith large, more or less angu- 
lar, very white, with a thick firm 
diaphragm at each node. Buds 
moderate, globose, often collater- 
ally multiple, with several ex- 
posed scales, the end-bud large, 
conical, with a single infolding 
striate scale. lLeaf-scars alternate, 
2-ranked, rather large, round, 
somewhat elevated: bundle-traces 
several, unequal, compound or ag- 
gregated in a broken ring: stipule- 
sears encircling the stem. 
Though there is nothing very 
interesting about the edible fig as 
ordinarily grown, it is well known 
that the oriental varieties of this 
species require fertilization for 
the development of their fruit through the activities of a 
minute gall-fly which breeds in a specialized type of gall flow- 
ers that accompany functionally active staminate and pistil- 
late flowers in the large fleshy receptacle that we call tle 
fruit. Similar interrelations exist between other figs and 
gall insects. In tropical regions many species send roots 
down from the branches, these enlarging into supplementary 
trunks which sometimes transform a single tree into an in- 
tricate grove. Others, which start as epiphytes on other trees, 
send down similar but interlacing roots, of which enormous 
trunks are formed at length. 
Glabrous: end-bud green: lateral buds brown. Ky. Caries. 
