20 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
fig, and where it had long since become a necessity and an important 
article of diet, the fig tree and its culture had not yet reached Babylon, 
and neither Media nor Persia was acquainted with its use. Accord- 
ing to Herodotus, Sandanis warned Kroisos not to make war with 
‘barbarians who knew neither wine nor figs.” ! Still, wild varieties 
of figs, not very different from the caprifig, are found in Persia and 
India, from which another race of edible figs might have been origi- 
nated by any intelligent agricultural race.’ 
Gradually the fig tree spread over Asia Minor and Syria to parts of 
Mesopotamia and Persia and to the several oases in the great Arabian 
desert. In the lowlands between the Euphrates and the Tigris fig eul- 
ture was yet unknown.” Inthe mountain districts of Taurus, Arme- 
nia, and in the Iranian table-lands fig culture long ago reached a high 
development. Toward the east it has spread to Khorassan, Herat, and 
Afghanistan, as well as to Meru and to Chiwi. But India did not 
possess fig culture in the fourteenth century, though native figs of 
good quality and resembling our edible fig are growing wild in the 
hills of the Punjab.’ 
The fig is supposed to have reached China during the reign of the 
Emperor Tschang-Kien, who fitted out an expedition to Turan in the 
year 127 A. D. The fig is first mentioned by Chinese writers in the 
eighth century. Hia-tscheng-Shi, in his work, ‘‘ Yu-yang-tsa-tsu,” 
treating of the Chinese trade, speaks of a fruit as ‘‘tin-tin” in a 
country—‘‘ Fo-tin” (Palestine). ‘‘Tin” is the Arabic name for the 
fig. This writer mentions that the fruit originated without a blos- 
som, ete. This early introduction of the fig to China may, however, 
be only a myth. It seems that in the fourteenth century figs were 
growing in China, but it is not certain if these figs were identical with 
our own. In 1550, however, the fig is described by the celebrated 
Chinese writer, Le-Shi-tschen,* as growing in Chinese gardens, and 
from that time we may conclude that fig culture was properly estab- 
lished in the extreme eastern part of Asia. Now many varieties of 
figs are-cultivated in China, some being of very good quality. In 
Egypt fig culture never assumed any prominent place, undoubtedly 
on account of the climate, which permits no plants to grow without 
irrigation, which, if given in any excess, is especially injurious to the 
quality of the figs. In the old tombs at Benihassan may be seen a 
wall painting illustrative of a fig harvest, in which the fig tree is 
characteristically and unmistakably pictured.’ The hieroglyphical 
1 Herodot, I, cap. 71, according to Hehm. 
?Solms-Laubach (2), p. 45. From the following pages are taken many of the 
remarks on the eastern geographical distribution of the fig. 
’Solms-Laubach (2), p. 80. 
4The Chinese history of the fig is according to letters and manuscripts of Dr. 
Bretschneider in Pe'xing, to Solms-Laubach. 
’Unger, pp. 53, 110, 
