246 



NATURE 



{yan. 10, 1889 



himself more acquainted with the present condition of 

 physiological and psychological research. 



The most satisfixctory part of the book is the concluding 

 section, entitled " The Cultivation of Memory," wherein 

 some excellent practical advice is given with regard to 

 methods of acquisition and study, the adoption of which 

 would save much commonly wasted time and labour. 



W. C. COUPLAND. 



THE SPECIES OF FICUS OF THE INDO- 

 MALAYAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



The Species of Ficus of the Indo-Malayan and Chinese 

 Countries. Part II. Synoecia, Sycidium, Covellia, 

 Eusyce, and Neomorphe. By George King, M.B., 

 F.R.S., &c. Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, 

 Vol. I. Part 2,pp 67-185,11.87-225. (Calcutta: Printed 

 at the Secretariat Press. London : L. Reeve and Co. 

 1888.) 



THE first part of this excellent illustrated monograph 

 of a very difficult genus was reviewed in Nature, 

 vol. xxxvi. p. 242, where some details are given of the clas- 

 sification adopted by Dr. King. The present part com- 

 pletes the volume ; but it is intimated that a supplement 

 is to follow, dealing with the new species recently collected 

 by Mr. H. O. Forbes in New Guinea, and containing an 

 account of the fertilization of Ficus Roxburghii, by Dr. 

 D. D. Cunningham. A photograph of a tree in fruit of 

 this remarkable species forms the frontispiece to the 

 volume. It is one of those species which bear the fruit 

 on the trunk ; and in this particular tree the fruit is heaped 

 up around the base of the trunk in such profusion as to 

 suggest the idea of its having been placed there. .Several 

 species of the section Covellia exhibit this peculiarity ; 

 and some even go farther and bury their fruit in the 

 ground, where it ripens, like the earth-nut Arachis 

 hypogcea. Ficus conglobata, King, and F. hypogcBa, King, 

 belong to this group. The former bears enormous clusters 

 of figs which are wholly or partially buried in the soil ; 

 and of the latter, Mr. H. O. Forbes, who collected it in 

 Sumatra, at an altitude of 5000 feet, says " the fig-bearing 

 branches issue from the stem very near the ground, and at 

 once become sub-terrestrial, producing figs either entirely 

 or partially buried. These figs when very young are de- 

 void of colour in the upper half, but pinkish in the lower 

 half. When a little older they become reddish-pink 

 all over, and when mature they are of a greenish-grey 

 colour." 



Another highly curious species is Ficus Minahassa:, 

 Miquel, a native of the province of Minahassae in the 

 Celebes. Miquel truly says this is " Omnium Ficuum 

 maxime singularis." The figs (receptacles) are only from 

 one-tenth to one-fifteenth of an inch in diameter, crowded 

 together in little balls, about an inch in diameter, and 

 borne on long slender pendulous leafless branches. 



Ficus hispida, Linnaeus, is one of the commonest 

 species throughout tropical Asia, and extends to North 

 Australia and Hong Kong. It is also very variable, the 

 variability being in a great measure due to the different 

 situations in which it grows. This species bears the 

 receptacles (figs) in pairs in the axils of the leaves, or in 



clusters on the trun^, and sometimes they occur in both 

 positions on the same tree at the same time. The fruit 

 from the trunk sometimes burrows in the ground, and 

 Roxburgh seems to have been the first to record the 

 phenomenon. On the sandy lands near the sea on the 

 coast of the Tanjore country, he states, the whole raceme 

 and fruit are often entirely underground. Whether it was 

 for this reason or not that this variety received the name 

 of F. Dcemonum is not mentioned, but Vahl gave this 

 name to specimens collected by Koenig. 



With regard to the execution of the second part of 

 Dr. King's monograph, more especially the lithographs, 

 the work of native artists, there is, if anything, an 

 improvement on the first part ; and the dissections 

 are throughout on the same plate as the species 

 to' which they refer (instead of on separate plates 

 as in the first part), which is much more convenient. 

 The total number of species described is 207, many 

 of them new ; though, on the other hand, Dr. King 

 has reduced a very large 'number of species founded 

 by other authors, especially by Miquel, on fragmentary 

 herbarium specimens. In several instances two species 

 were founded on the different sexes of the same species, 

 based upon differences in the shape and other characters 

 of the receptacle. On this point it may be mentioned 

 that Count Solms's and Fritz Miiller's investigations of 

 the sexual relations of the fig and caprifig, and the inves- 

 tigation of other species by the former, had led botanists 

 to expect greater diversities in the male and female 

 receptacles than would appear from Dr. King's researches 

 to exist. He says : — " In by far the majority of cases 

 these two kinds of receptacle \i.e. male and female], so 

 physiologically distinct, are undistinguishable by external 

 characters, and they are borne by the same individual 

 plant. They look exactly alike until one opens and 

 examines their contents. The most notorious of the few 

 exceptions to this rule is the common eatable fig {Ficus 

 Carica)." These differences have been fully discussed 

 from time to time in Nature. What is more surprising 

 than this sexual similarity is that in certain species having 

 dimorphic receptacles, the dimorphism Dr. King finds 

 bears no relation to the separation of the sexes. For 

 example, Ficus trachycarpa, Miquel, having spherical 

 verrucose receptacles, Dr. King considers to be the same 

 species as F. clavata, Wallich, which has larger ovate or 

 obovate receptacles ; and he says: — " There is no absolute 

 sexual relation between the external form and the con- 

 tents of the two kinds of receptacle which, occur in this 

 species ; but, so far as I have observed, the large obovoid 

 clavate receptacles invariably contain male and gall- 

 flowers, and the males are not confined to a zone near the 

 mouth, but are to be found on all parts of the interior of 

 the receptacle. Of the small subglobular receptacles, 

 however, some are exclusively filled with fertile female 

 flowers, while others (hke the large clavate receptacles) 

 contain males and gall-flowers mixed together." One 

 would almost suspect an error in the identification of 

 these two forms as one species, though in foliage they 

 are absolutely alike. 



But, apart from all physiological considerations, it is a 

 matter for congratulation that this useful work has been 

 completed, and Dr. King has earned the thanks of all his 

 fe'lov, -botanists. W. B. H. 



