202 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
cess in foreign countries, and, furthermore, clearly establishes the fact 
that a fig which is eminently successful in one locality is as glaringly 
a failure in another country not so very far away. How, then, can we 
judge as to the suitability of any locality to the culture of the fig, 
with hardly a dozen varieties generally distributed and grown to select 
from, and with the erroneous idea commonly accepted that this coun- 
try already cultivates among that dozen all the best varieties of the 
Old World? Among the hundreds of varieties of value grown in the 
Mediterranean districts, some will no doubt be found to sueceed in 
the Pacific States and prove valuable. But our true success will in 
time be based on our ability to originate new varieties suited to our 
conditions, which in many respects are very dissimilar to those of the 
fig countries of the Old World. This will not be done until the eapri- 
fig and the Blastophaga have been well established here, when acci- 
dental seedlings will pave the way for more scientific and intelligent 
efforts to produce what we so much require—varieties suited to locali- 
ties where the figs are to be grown. 
Another object of this catalogue is to enable our growers, to some 
extent at least, to identify such varieties as they now grow under ficti- 
tious or wrong names. For many of these varieties the writer has 
been unable to procure descriptions; others are only imperfectly 
known—a defect which it is hoped will be corrected in time. 
DESCRIBING THE VARIETIES. 
Even in the best horticultural books figs have had little attention 
and have been insufficiently described. This is especially apparent 
in French books on horticulture, which is the more strange, as France 
is the country where more care is bestowed on fig culture and fruit 
culture generally than anywhere else. All late French authors have 
copied descriptions given by the older ones, without critical research 
and comparison; the nurserymen in their turn have copied from one 
another, and no one has apparently even attempted to describe a fig 
so that it could be reasonably well recognized. The great number of 
varieties and their distribution in widely separate countries have made 
comparisons very difficult. In order to remedy this a type collection 
of figs has been established at Niles, Cal., where about 120 varieties 
are now growing and in bearing. Some seventy-odd and mostly new 
varieties have been added lately by courtesy of the Secretary of Agri- 
culture. In properly deseribing a fig it is not sufficient to give size, 
shape, and color, as is so generally done, as there are scores of varie- 
ties in which these qualities are exactly similar, but which differ essen- 
tially in other points.-. A fig to be properly described must have all 
the following points mentioned and the same order of description must 
be followed, so that a comparison may be readily made with other 
varieties. The description should begin with the most apparent char- 
acteristics and end with those less readily seen. The following are 
the principal features of the fig, and in describing these even the 
