730 VRTICACE^. (KETTLE FAMILY.) 



umbilicate at apex, and has a narrow, open mouth, furnished with 

 scales. Staminate flowers : sepals 3-5 ; stamens 3-6, filaments straight 

 in the bud. Pistillate flowers : perigonium 5-fid ; ovary 1-celled, style 

 lateral, stigmas 3 or 1 ; fruit consisting of the fleshy receptacle, and 

 minute, crustaceous, 1-secded utricles; testa of seed membranous; 

 embryo incurved — Trees with milky juice and alternate leaves, appear- 

 ing with fruit. 



F. €ariea, L. 5 Fig. Tin. 8 to 5. Leaves deciduous, petioled, 

 scabrous at upper surface, pubescent or velvety at lower, ovate, cordate at 

 base, o-5-lobed, repand, rarely undivided, . 1 to . 3 long and broad. Figs 

 solitary, in or above axils, on the last yea fs Iranches^ short-peduncled, 

 pyriform to globular, tapering at base to a stalk as long as fig, or desti- 

 tute of stalk — Summer — Common in the wild state, and cultivated 

 in many selected varieties for its usually sweet, sometimes somewhat 

 acid fruit. Of the wild varieties there grow in Syria and Palestine : — 



Var. g^eniiiua, Boiss. Leaves 3-5-lobed, or rarely undivided. 



Var. riparinm, Haussk. Leaves 5-7-lobed, lobes oblong-spathu- 

 late. 



Var. rupcstris, Haussk. Leaves undivided, ovate to oblong, 

 obtuse, leathery. Fruit pyriform, more or less puberulent, 



Var. g-lobosa, Boiss. Leaves trilobed or undivided. Fruit 

 globular, puberulent, destitute of stalk. 



2. F. pseudosycomorus, Decaisn 5 Alu-IIammdd. Zamyuh 

 Hammdt. Dablut. 3; young branches ^^runiose. Leaves deciduous, 

 petioled, ovate to ovate-orbicular, cordate at base, .05 to .15 long, ob- 

 tuse, crenate-dentate or lohded, some undivided, others repand to tri- 

 lobed, green and scabrous at upper surface, pale and tomentelious at 

 length glabrescent-scabrous at low^er. Figs solitary on last year's 

 branches, out of axils, short-peduncled or sessile, turbinate, puberu- 

 lent — April — El-Ghor ; Dead Sea, and southward to Sinai and Egypt. 



C. F. ^yeainorus, L. 5 



Sycamore. Jtanmeiz. 8 to 15 high, 

 and often .20 broad. Leaves persis- 

 tent, petioled, ovate-subcordate, .1 

 to .2 long, obtuse, entire, glabrous 

 except the sparingly hirtulous nerves 

 of the lower surface. Figs on tortu- 

 ous, leafless twigs on the trunTc or older 

 "branches, turbinate, .02 long, sliort- 

 stipitate, tomentelious — Summer — 

 Common, especially in and about 

 towns. 



F. religiosa, L., the Banyan, F. 

 clastica, Nois, the India Rubber Tree, 

 and F. Benghalensis, L. are some- Branch with fruiting twigs, 



what cultivated about towns. 



5. HIJMIJL.US, L. Hop. 



Flowers dioecious. Staminate Howcrs racemed; sepals 5; stamens 5, 

 inserted at base of sepals, erect, with a very short filament; anthers ob- 



