Ficus.] cxxiiic. MORACE.E (Hutchiiison). 79 



membranous and hyaline ; stamens 1-2, or rarely 3-6, with straight 

 short filaments ; anthers more or less oblong or ovoid, exserted or 

 included; rudimentary ovary or very rarely present. Female 

 flower : perianth-segments often fewer and narrower than in the 

 male or rarely minute ; ovary mostly obliquely ellipsoid or ovoid ; 

 style almost invariably lateral, short or slender and rather long ; 

 stigma usually oblong ; ovule laterally attached and pendulous 

 from near the apex of the cell. Achene partially enclosed within 

 the persistent perianth ; pericarp crustaceous and dry or rarely 

 succulent. Seed pendulous, with a membranous testa ; albumen 

 often scanty ; embryo curved, with often plicate and subequal 

 or equal cotyledons with the radicle incumbent. — Trees, shrubs or 

 rarely climbers, vdth milky juice. Leaves alternate or very rarely 

 opposite, entire, dentate or variously lobed, very variable in shape 

 and venation ; stipules enveloping the terminal bud, caducous at 

 the unfolding of the leaves or more rarely persistent. Receptacles 

 (Jigs) sessile or pedunculate, mostly paired when axillary or 

 sometimes solitary, when borne on the trunk or main branches 

 remote from the leaves then in leafless panicles or more usually in 

 fascicles, 2-3-bracteate at the base with the bracts in a whorl or 

 more rarely several bracts scattered on the peduncle and over the 

 receptacle. Bracts at the mouth {ostiole) of the receptacle in several 

 series, small, spreading horizontally across the mouth and then 

 visible from outside or all descending abruptly into the interior of 

 the receptacle and not visible from outside, the ostiole in the 

 latter case being pore-like. Male flowers in the African species 

 usually very few and near the ostiole, rarely mixed amongst 

 the female and gall flowers ; female flowers usually numerous 

 and sessile; gall flowers mostly numerous and long-pedicellate. 

 Bracteoles among the flowers usually small and inconspicuous or 

 absent. 



About 700 species, spread throughout the tropics and subtropics of both 

 hemispheres. 



Ficus elastica, Linn., the india-rubber fig, and F. Carica, Linn., the common 

 edible tig, are both cultivated in Tropical Africa. The latter species, 

 according to Welwitsch (cf. Hiem in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. i. 1008), is grown 

 in Angola and affords well-tasted fruit, but always inferior to that grown in 

 Europe. 



Excluded Species. 



F. obovata. Sim, For. Fl. Port. E. Afr. 101, t. xciv. C, is a species of Cordia 

 (Boragineae) and very near C. abyssinica. 



F. ralaviensis, Warb. in Notizbl. Uonigl. Bot. Gart. Berlin, ii. 112, is crroneouslv 

 attributed to Tropical Africa by the Index Kcwensis ; Ralum is in the Bismarck 

 Archipelago, Polynesia. 



Urostignia hindcrianum, Kotschy in Sitzb. Akad. Wien. Math. Nat. li. (ISC);")) 

 2o'i'iA Anona scnegnlensist'PcTS. — Type seen in the V^ienna Herbarium. 



