242 OUR COMMON FETJITS. 



would not pay to be at the expense of so much as a 

 bundle of straw to protect the centre of the plant. In 

 spring the branches are disinterred and the bundles 

 untied, when the figs on wood of the past year ripen well, 

 but those on shoots of the current year are thought to 

 require artificial aid, afforded them by an old woman with 

 a phial of oil at her apron-string, and in her hand a wheat- 

 straw about 5 in. long, which she places in the bottle, 

 pressing her thumb on the other end of the tube when 

 full, to prevent the contents flowing out; then with- 

 drawing it, inserts the tip into the eye of the full-grown 

 fig, and lifts her thumb for a moment to let one drop of 

 oil descend, taking a fresh supply into her tube after 10 

 or 12 figs have been thus treated. This is considered the 

 least objectionable mode of caprification ; yet, though ren- 

 dered eatable, the figs are far inferior to those ripened 

 naturally. About Marseilles the plants are left to grow 

 for two years, then cut down, and the shoots which spring 

 forth after this, form, in the third year, a bush which the 

 next year ripens fruit. 



In order to reach perfection, the fig-tree requires so 

 plentiful a supply of water that it might almost be said 

 to be partly aquatic; its large leaves and very porous 

 bark, with but a small epidermis, favours transpiration, so 

 that extreme heat is as injurious to it as frost. An author 

 of the 16th century in the S. of France mentions a very 

 ingenious method adopted in that locality to quench this 

 plant's perpetual thirst: "We place," says he, "small 

 cisterns under the fig-trees, and into them we put the 

 ends of a quantity of worsted threads, and then conduct 

 them among the branches, bringing the other ends down 

 to the ground, a little lower than those in the cistern ; 

 and by this means the capillary attraction is set to work, 

 diffusing moisture among the branches and also dropping 

 down upon the roots." 



Though only cultivated in the northern provinces of 

 France to be brought fresh to table, in the south figs are 

 also grown for drying, though sufficient care is not de- 

 voted to this operation except just about Marseilles and a 

 few other parts, so that French figs, excellent when just 



