THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



the form of a hollow body, bearing on its interior wall the flowers or fruit of 

 the fig. 



The fig tree, in all its parts, abounds in a viscid, milky juice, and this is found even in 

 the fruit before it arrives at maturity ; this juice is acrid, and is used on the Continent 

 to destroy warts ; in Pliny's time it was thought to cure the bites of venomous animals 

 and mad dogs. The fleshy part of the fig is very agreeable, and many varieties are 

 cultivated in this country. Figs are dried either in the sun or in stoves, and are known 

 under different names, according to the places where they are produced ; they form the 

 great part of the food of certain peoples of Africa, and even the peasantry of some parts 

 of Italy and Spain ; with us they are only eaten as a dessert. 



Thoroughly ripened, well-grown figs, fresh from the tree, are amongst the richest 

 and most luscious of fruits, esteemed at dessert and as wholesome food. A prejudice, 

 however, exists among some people, who, tasting the fruit for the first time, consider it 

 sickly, but a person once eating a fig at its best not gathered till it droops, the skin 

 slightly cracked, and the juice exu led, standing on the surface like dewdrops and a 

 large tear in the eye quickly acquires a relish for ripe figs. 



VARIETIES. 



Figs are very numerous : sixty-six varieties were proved at Chiswick in 1890, a 

 report on "Figs and their Culture," by Mr. A. F. Barron, being given in the Journal 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society, vol. xiii., page 122. In Dr. Hogg's Fruit Manual, 

 fifth edition, seventy varieties are enumerated and scientifically described. Figs are 

 divided by Dr. Hogg into two classes 1, fruit round, roundish, or turbinate, with three 

 divisions ; 2, fruit long, pyriform, or obovate, with four divisions. But for cultural 

 purposes we have divided them into three classes. 



I. FRUIT BLACK ou PURPLE. 



BLACK BOURJASSOTTE. Fruit medium, roundish oblate; BLACK ISCHIA (Early Forcing). Fruit medium, tur- 



neck short, obscurely ribbed ; skin black, covered binate, flat on top ; skin deep purple ; flesh deep 



with a thick blue bloom, slightly cracked when red, sweet, luscious ; tree hardy, early and prolific ; 



ripe ; flesh deep red, thick, syrupy, delicious ; tree useful for pot culture, 



a free bearer. BLACK PROVENCE (Black Marseilles, Beculver). Fruit 



BLACK GENOA. Fruit large, oblong, broad at the apex, small, oblong ; skin dark purple ; flesh red, juicy, 



slender towards the stalk ; skin dark purple, covered and richly flavoured ; tree very prolific ; good for 



with a thick blue bloom ; flesh yellowish under the pot culture. 



skin, but red towards the interior, juicy, and well BORDEAUX (Violette de Bordeaux). Fruit below 



flavoured; tree hard}', and a free bearer. This medium size, long, pyriform, ribbed; skin black, 



variet) r is the large black fig so commonly grown in covered with blue bloom, frugose, shrivelling when 



the South of France, and known under the synonyms, dead ripe ; flesh pale copper, juicy, and well 



Nigra, Negro d'Espagne, Noire de Languedoc. flavoured ; very prolific, and keeps well when rip, 



