FIG-TREE. 93 



The winter dressing of the fig-tree takes place immedi- 

 ately after the fall of the leaf. The immature figs which 

 may remain are removed, irregularities are corrected, and 

 the shoots nailed neatly to the wall. Various modes of 

 protecting the branches during winter have been adopted. 

 At Argenteuil, where figs are cultivated on standards for 

 the Paris market, the lower branches are bent downwards, 

 and buried about six inches deep in the soil ; while the up- 

 per branches are tied together, and bound round with straw 

 and litter. Mr. Swayne mentions that he wraps up the 

 young shoots with waste paper. Mr. Forsyth recommends 

 covering wall fig-trees with the spray of laurel or yew, and 

 then tucking in short grass or moss {hypnum) among the 

 spray. Mr. Smith, first at Ormiston Hall, and afterwards 

 at Hopetoun House, has found (Cal. Hort. Soc. Mem., 

 vol. ii.) a covering of spruce-fir branches to be very effec- 

 tual. The branches are so placed as to overlap each other, 

 and to form a layer nearly equally thick on every part of 

 the tree. The foliage of the spruce branches remains green 

 till March, and as the light and heat increase, the dried 

 leaves gradually fall off, and admit air and sun to the fig 

 branches below. 



Mr. Monk (Lond. Hort. Trans., vol. v.) states that the 

 same fig-tree seldom produces fruit containing both perfect 

 stamens and pistils, and conjectures that this is the cause 

 of the fruit being so often prematurely shed. Caprijica- 

 tion, or assisting the fructifying and maturation of figs, 

 has often been sneered at ; but here we see reason in that 

 kind of it which consisted in hanging or shaking the 

 branches of the wild fig (caprificus) over the cultivated tree 

 at the time when both were in blossom. 



" There is something very singular in the fructification 

 of the fig ; it has no visible flower, for the fruit arises ini 



