562 



F I C 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



FIG 



of this liquor opens the body, and provokes an appetite, but 

 a larger dose works both by stool and vomit. Browne calls 

 it the antidote cocoon; as it is frequently taken whoa there 

 is any suspicion of poison, and often on other occasions. 

 Some think this to be a variety of the first species ; and 

 Swartz affirms, that they are not so much as varieties. 



Ficus ; a genus of the class Polygamia, order Dioecia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common obovate, very 

 large, fleshy, concave, closed with many semi-lanceolate, 

 sharp, serrate, inflex scales. The inner surface is covered 

 with floscules, the outer of which, or those which are nearer 

 to the edge of the calix, are male, these are fewer in number; 

 the rest, lower down, are female, and more numerous. Male, 

 each on its proper peduncle, Calix: perianth proper, three- 

 parted, erect ; divisions lanceolate, erect, equal. Corolla : 

 none. Stamina: nlamenta three, bristle-shaped, length of 

 the calix; antherse twin. Pistil: rudimenta caducous, in- 

 torted. Female, each on its proper peduncle. Calix : pe- 

 rianth proper, five-parted; divisions lanceolate-acuminate, 

 straight, nearly equal. Corolla: none. Pistil: germen oval, 

 the size of the proper perianth ; style subulate, inflex, com- 

 ing out from the germen at the side of the tip; stigmas two, 

 acuminate, reflex, one shorter than the other. ^Pericarp: 

 none, except the perianth enlarged and become pulpy. 

 Seed: single, roundish, compressed. ESSENTIAL CHARAC- 

 TER. Receptacle: common turbinate, fleshy, converging, 

 concealing the floscules, either on the same or on a distinct 

 individual. Male. Calve ; three-parted. Corolla : none. 

 Stamina: three. Female. Calix: five-parted. Corolla: 

 none. Pistil: one. Seed: one. Linneus tells us, that he 

 removed this genus from the class Cryptogamia toPolygamia, 

 on account of the different structure of the fructification, 

 the spreading umbilicus, navel, or opening of the receptacle 

 in some species, its want of genuine affinity to the plants of 

 the class Cryptogamia, and by the advice of baron Mun- 

 chausen, a very acute botanist. Some modern authors have 

 again removed the genus into the class Triandria. There 

 are two treatises on this genus ; one in the first volume of the 

 Amcenitatcs Academical, in 1744, and the other by Thunberg, 

 in 1786. The species are, 



1. Ficus Carica ; Common Fig Tree. Leaves palmatc- 

 subtrilobate, rugged underneath ; fruits smooth, pear-shaped, 

 umbilicated. The common Fig-tree seldom exceeds two 

 yards in height; the trunk is about the thickness of the 

 human arm; the wood porous and spongy; the bark ash- 

 coloured, full of chinks, and rugged; branches smooth, with 

 oblong white dots, erect or ascending, flexuose, or bent 

 back; stipules in pairs, sessile, ovate, acute, ferruginous, 

 caducous; leaves deciduous, a span long, in three or five 

 deep rounded lobes, of which the central one is the largest, 

 they are of a deep green ; petioles round, grooved, about an 

 inch in length ; fruits axillary, solitary, the size of a pear, on 

 very short round peduncles, generally of a purplish colour, 

 with a soft, sweet, and fragrant pulp. The first Figs intro- 

 duced into England, are still remaining in the archbishop's 

 garden at Lambeth ; they are of the white Marseilles kind, 

 and still bear delicious fruit : they cover a surfice of fifty feet 

 in height, and forty in breadth ; the circumference of the 

 trunk of the southernmost is twenty-eight inches, of the 

 other twenty-one. On the south side of the building is 

 another tree of the same age, the circumference of which 

 is twenty-eight inches at the bottom. Tradition says, they 

 were planted by cardinal Pole ; which is very probable, for 

 it is generally allowed, that Fig-trees were brought into 

 England in the reign of Henry the Eighth; and it seems 

 likely, that the cardinal, who had resided long in Italy, 



should be fond of cultivating those fruits to which he had 

 been there accustomed. To the objection arising from their 

 great age, it may be replied, that we do not well know how 

 long a Fig-tree will flourish, if properly cultivated. There is 

 also a concurrent tradition of an older tree, and instances of 

 two very ancient ones, with the time of their plantation well 

 ascertained. The first at Mitcham, in the garden of the 

 manor-house, formerly the private estate of archbishop Cran- 

 mer, and still belonging to one of his descendants : it is also 

 of the white sort, and is confidently asserted to have been 

 planted by that venerable prelate : the branches are very 

 low, but the stem, which measures thirty inches in girth, 

 has every mark of great age. The other is in the dean's 

 garden at Winchester, where, in the year 1757, there was a 

 very ancient Fig-tree, the fruit of which was of the small 

 red sort : it was enclosed in a wooden frame, with a glass 

 door and two windows on each side of it, for the admission 

 of sun and air: the frame protected it from wind and rain. 

 On the stone wall to which the tree was nailed, there was 

 a plastering, and several inscriptions, one of which stated, 

 that " in the year 1G23, king James the First tasted of 

 the fruit of this tree with great pleasure." Since the above 

 time, this tree has been suffered to perish, for the want 

 of necessary repairs to the frame-work. At Oxford also, 

 in the garden of the regius professor of Hebrew, is a Fig- 

 tree brought from the East, and planted by Dr. Pococke 

 in the year 1648, which is in a thriving condition, and 

 bears a black Fig. In 1792, though this last-mentioned 

 tree bore marks of great age, and had its trunk perforated 

 by insects, and damaged by time and weather, yet the 

 branches of the new wood were clean, made vigorous shoots, 

 and produced a number of small figs, which were touched 

 by the frost, and were then falling off. Turner, in his Her- 

 bal, says, that the Fig-tree was cultivated in England in the 

 year 1562; Gerarde says in 1597, and adds, " that the fruit 

 never cometh to kindly maturity with us, except the tree be 

 planted under a hot wall, whereto neither north nor north- 

 east winds can come." Parkinson also, in 1629, says, that 

 " if you plant it not against a brick wall, or the wall of an 

 house, it will not ripen so kindly ; that the dwarf Fig is more 

 tender, and is therefore planted in great square tubs, to be 

 removed into the sun in the summer time, and into the house 

 in winter." In his time only three sorts were known: 1. The 

 Figs of Algarva, sweet and delicate, bluish when ripe ; 2. the 

 white ordinary sort, that cometh from Spain ; 3. the Dwarf 

 Fig, not higher than a man's shoulders, bearing excellent 

 blue fruit, but not so large as the first. Mr. Miller informs 

 us, " that there are many varieties in the warm countries, 

 which have been obtained from seeds, and might be in- 

 creased, if the inhabitants were careful in propagating the 

 trees from the seeds of the best sorts." In England, we had 

 not more, than four or five sorts, till within a few years past ; 

 for as the generality of the English were not lovers of this 

 fruit, there were few who troubled themselves with the cul- 

 ture of it. \Ve shall here introduce such of the varieties as 

 are best worth cultivating, placing them in the order of their 

 ripening: 1. The browii, or chestnut-coloured Ischia Fig. 

 This, s;iys Mr. Miller, is the largest of any 1 have yet seen; 

 it is short, globular, with a pretty large eye, pinched in near 

 the footstalk, of a brown or chestnut colour on the outside, 

 and purple within ; the grains are large, and the pulp sweet 

 and high-rluvoured : this sort very often bursts open when it 

 ripens, which it does at the end oi" July and the beginning ol 

 August. It has lipened well on standards in a warm soil, 

 and if planted against hot walls, two plentiful crops of fruit 

 may be annually ripened. 2. The Black Genoa Fig. This 



