130 L THE Fic 



careful cultivators thin out the twigs every year, and so 

 insure a more marketable crop. Any wounding of the 

 stem or branches during active vegetation causes a flow 

 of "latex" or milk, and if prolonged or carried to excess 

 may exhaust the tree and impair the crop. Owing to 

 the soft texture of the wood large wounds are always 

 dangerous because they become invariably the starting 

 point of decay. The practice of removing most of the 

 foliage late in summer after harvesting the crop, to 

 collect forage for goats and other animals, is objection- 

 able on the ground that the tree thereby loses the means 

 to elaborate the material necessary for next year's 

 vegetation ; besides incurring the risk that the tree may 

 be induced to start fresh growth with the first autumnal 

 rain, which growth will be weak and unsuitable for the 

 next year's production of fruit. The foliage of the fig 

 is liable to cause, at all seasons but chiefly in autumn, a 

 troublesome eruption of the skin to those who handle it. 

 The eruption begins with an itching of the skin on the 

 back of the hands, arms and face wherever the skin came 

 roughly in contact with the leaves and particularly with 

 their margin. The itching commences within 24 hours 

 after contact with the leaves, and is followed by redness 

 and the formation of small vescicles filled with serum, 

 which dry up in a week or two. 



Fig trees grown in pots are with us only an object 

 of curiosity, but all varieties grow well in pots, and fruit 

 regularly. This cultivation is sometimes followed for 

 the purpose of forcing the plants into an extra early 

 production or into a late one. When placed in a fairly 

 warm glasshouse in November or December some time 

 after the shedding of the leaves, they soon start growing 

 again and produce fruits which ripen towards the close 

 of winter or early in spring. It is also possible, when 

 the young wood has ripened sufficiently by the end of 

 July, to remove the green fruits and to gradually withdraw 

 water to cause the leaves to turn yellow and to shed. 



