CHAP. c. c;rtica"ce^. Fi'cvs. 1367 



vigour, when Dr. Neill, and the other members of the deputation of the 

 Caledonian Horticultural Society, inspected the archiepiscopal gardens. 

 On our visiting the grounds, however, in September, 1836, we found that the 

 trees had been destroyed some years before, when the palace was undergoing 

 repair; and that the only traces left of them were some young plants raised 

 from cuttings, which are now growing in the archbishop's kitchen-garden. 

 At Mitcham, in the garden of the Manor House, formerly the private estate of 

 Archbishop Cranmer, there was, in Miller's time, the remains of a white fig 

 tree, confidently asserted to have been planted by Cranmer himself; but it was 

 destroyed in 1790. Its stem, some years before, was 10 in. in diameter ; but 

 its branches were very low and weak. In the Dean's garden at Winchester, 

 there existed, in 1757, a fig tree protected by a wooden frame, supposed to be 

 of very great age. On the stone wall to which it was trained there were se- 

 veral inscriptions, one of which bore testimony that, in 1G23, James I. " tasted 

 of the fruit of this tree with great pleasure." Miller says that it was suffered 

 to perish for want of necessary repairs to the framework. A fig tree 

 brought from Aleppo by Dr. Pococke, and which was planted by him, in 164-8, 

 in the garden of the regius professor of Hebrew in Christ-Church, Oxford, 

 seems to be the only ancient fig tree on record still existing in Britain. Some 

 of the figs produced by this tree were exhibited at a meeting of the London 

 Horticultural Society, in August, 1819 ; and others gained a prize, as the best 

 white figs, at a meeting of the Oxford and Oxfordshire Horticultural Society, 

 in August, 1833. An account of this tree, by Mr. Baxter, curator of the 

 Oxford Botanic Garden, will be found in the London Horticultural Society's 

 Transactions, vol. iii. p. +33. ; from which it appears that, in 1806, Dr. White, 

 then professor of Hebrew in Christ-Church, caused an engraving to be 

 made of the tree. It was at that time 21 ft. high, and the trunk mea- 

 sured 3 ft. 6 in. in circumference at its upper part. The tree, when we saw 

 it in 1833, contained but very slight remains of the old trunk; but it had 

 thrown out a number of branches, perhaps at that time of 20 or 30 years' 

 growth, and some of which were upwards of 2o ft. in length. (See Gard. 

 Mag., vol. X. p. lOo.) The fig tree, though introduced so early, appears for 

 a long time not to have been extensively cultivated in England. Professor 

 Burnet thinks that this was owing to a popular prejudice, the fig having been 

 once a common vehicle for poison : a singular contrast to the ideas expressed 

 in the Bible respecting this fruit ; the best blessing of heaven being typified 

 by every man sitting under his own fig tree. In France, the culture of the fig 

 tree was not carried to any degree of perfection till the time of Olivier De Serres ; 

 but it is now general throughout tiie whole country. In the south of 

 France, figs are grown for drying as an article of commerce, but in the northern 

 provinces they are only used for the table. In the East, as well as in Italy 

 and Spain, figs form a principal article of sustenance for the population, and 

 a considerable article of commerce. According to M'CuUoch, the import- 

 ation into Britain is about 20,000 cwt., notwithstanding that every cwt. 

 pays a duty of 2 Is., which exceeds 100 per cent upon the price of the figs in 

 bond. If this duty were reduced, he says, to 8.s. or lOv. the cwt., it may very 

 fairly be concluded that the quantity imported would very soon be trebled, 

 or more. 



In Britain, the fig is in general cultivation in first-rate gardens ; usually 

 against walls; but in some parts of the southern counties, as along the coast 

 of Sussex, and in Devonshire, &c., as standards. In Scotland, it is never seen 

 as a standard ; but it ripens its fruit against a south wall, without the aid of 

 fire heat, in some parts of East Lothian, and in W'igtonshire ; and against 

 a fined wall, even in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. The largest fig tree 

 against a wall which we have seen in England is at Farnham Castle, where, in 

 25 years, it has reached the height of 40 ft. against the walls of the castle. 

 The largest standard fig trees that we have seen are at Arundel Castle, where 

 they are upwards of 25 ft. high, with trunks 1 ft. in diameter. At Tarring, 

 and at one or two other places near Brighton, fig trees are grown as standards. 



