F I C 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



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when some other kinds growing in the same situation have 

 received very little injury from the frost; indeed the white 

 ort is generally a bearer, and the fruit is very sweet ; but to 

 those palates which are accustomed to figs, that sort, owing 

 to its want of flavour, is hot much esteemed. The first and 

 third kinds have succeeded best. Their branches are seldom 

 hurt by frost in Winter, and their fruit will always ripen Well ; 

 for in favourable seasons, many of these sorts> which were 

 growing against walls, have ripened their second crop of fruit 

 tolerably well. Mr. Miller says, " I have planted many of 

 these sorts of Fig-trees against north-east and north-west 

 aspects: some of these which were first planted, have pro- 

 duced a good quantity of well-tasted fruit, but were ripe 

 much later; Which has encouraged me to plant many more of 

 these trees to the same aspects, and also to increase my num- 

 ber of standard-trees." We are aware, that what has been 

 here advanced, in relation to the pruning and dressing of Fig- 

 trees, will be condemned by great numbers of people. Who 

 refuse to give themselves time to consider, and examine the 

 reasons upon which this practice is founded, or to make a 

 single experiment to ascertain the truth of it, because it is 

 vastly different from the practice of most gardeners, who 

 generally imagine that Fig-trees should never have much 

 pruning, or at least that they ought always to be suffered to 

 grow very freely to some distance from the wall. It cannot 

 be denied, that great quantities of fruit have been obtained 

 by this latter and more common method, but then it has only 

 been after mild winters; for it is very certain, that in sharp 

 frosts few of these projecting shoots escape great injuries, 

 when left Uncovered ; whereas it rarely happens, that those 

 shoots which are closely nailed to the waH in autumn, or laid 

 down and covered, suffer the least damage; and the fruits 

 are always produced a fortnight sooner upon these branches, 

 than they are upon those which grow from the wall : but 

 although the trees which are suffered to grow rUde from the 

 walls, may produce a good quantity of fruit for a year or 

 two, yet afterwards the trees will only bear at the ends of the 

 shoots, which will then be o far from the wall, as to receive 

 little benefit from it ; nor can the trees be reduced to any 

 regularity, without cutting away the greatest number of their 

 branches, by which a year or two will be lost before the'y 

 will come to bear again. The season, as Well as the method of 

 pruning here laid down, is also widely different from the 

 common practice and opinion of most gardeners, and will 

 therefore of course be objected against. Yet, if any one will 

 make the experiment, he will confirm the truth of what has 

 been here advanced; for as one great injury to this tree pro- 

 ceeds from the too great effusion of sap at the wounded 

 parts, the autumnal pruning prevents that evil ; since it is 

 well known, that during that season, all the pans of European 

 trees which cast their leaves, are less replete with moisture 

 than at any other time of the year; for by the long continu- 

 ance of the summer's heat, the juices of the plants having 

 been exhausted in the nourishment and augmentation of 

 wood, leaves, fruits, and also great quantities being evapo- 

 rated by perspiration, the root not being able to send up a 

 supply equivalent to this great consumption, the branches 

 must contain a much smaller quantity of sap than in the 

 spring, when it has had several months' supply from the root, 

 which, though small in proportion to the quantity supplied 

 when the heat is greater, yet as there is little or no waste, 

 either through perspiration or augmentation, there must be a 

 greater quantity contained in the branches, which is very 

 easily observed by breaking or cutting off a vigorous Fig- 

 tree branch at both seasons, the sap being milky, may be 

 readily discerned ; when that cut in autumn shall be found to 

 VOL. i. 48. 



stop its bleedin* in one day's time, or less, whereas that cut 

 in (he spring will often flow a Week or more, and the wound 

 be proportionably less disposed to heal. Of late years some 

 of these trees have been planted against fire-walls, and have 

 succeeded very well, where they have been properly ma- 

 naged; but where they have been kept too close, and drawn 

 by glasses, they have not produced much fruit : therefore, 

 whenever this is practised, the heat should not be too great, 

 not the glasses Or other coverings kept too close, but at all 

 times, when the weather is favourable, a good share of free 

 air should be admitted ; and if the trees be young, and their 

 roots are not extended beyond the reach of the covering, 

 they must be frequently watered when they begin to shew 

 fruit, otherwise it will drop off; but old trees, the roots 6f 

 which are extended to a great distance, will only require to 

 have their branches now and then sprinkled over with water. 

 If the trees be properly managed, the first crop of fruit will 

 be greater than upon those which are exposed to the open 

 air, and will ripen six weeks or two months earlier. A 

 plentiful second crop may also be obtained, which will ripen 

 early in September, and sometimes in August, which is about 

 the season of their ripening in the warmer parts Of Europe ; 

 but the fires should not be used till the beginning of Fe- 

 bruary ; because, when they are forced too early, the weather 

 is frequently too cold to admit a sufficient quantity of fresh 

 air to set the fruit ; but the covers should be put Oter the 

 trees a month before, to prevent the shoots from being itt~ 



jured by the frost. It may not be improper in this place to 



mention the great pains which the inhabitants of the Levant 

 are at in the culture of their Figs, and without which, it is 

 generally admitted by all travellers, who have noticed this 

 subject, as well as by Pliny, and other old naturalists, that 

 their fruit will fall off. and be good for nothing. Pliriy (says 

 Monsieur Tournefort in his travels) observed, that in Ceos, 

 now called Zia, they used to dress the Fig-trees with great 

 care ; they still continue to do so. To understand aright 

 this husbandry of Figs, called in Latin caprificatio, we are to 

 observe, that in most of the islands of the Archipelago they 

 have two sorts of Figs to manage ; the first is called ornos, 

 from the old Greek erinos, a Wild Fig-tree, or caprijicus in 

 Latin ; the second is the domestic or Garden Fig-tree. The 

 wild sort bears three kinds of fruit, fornites, cratitit-es, and 

 orni, of absolute necessity towards ripening those of the Gat- 

 den Fig. The fornites appear in August, and continue to 

 November, without ripening : in these breed small worms', 

 which turn to a sort of gnats, nowhere to be seen but about 

 these trees. In October and November, these gnats make of 

 themselves a puncture into the secdnd fruit, which is called 

 cratitires, and do not appear till the end of September ; and 

 the fornttes gradually fall away after the gnats are gone : the 

 cratitires, on the contrary, remain on the tree till May, and 

 enclose the eggs deposited by the gnats, when they pierced 

 them. In May, the third sort of fruit, called orni, begins to 

 put forth from the wild Fig-trees. This is much larger than 

 the other two, arid when it grows to a certain size, and the 

 bud begins to open, it is pricked in that part by the gnats of 

 the cratitires, which are in a proper state to go from one fruit 

 to another to discharge their eggs. It sometimes happens, that 

 the gnats of the cratitires are slow to come forth in certain 

 places, while the orni in those very places are disposed to re- 

 ceive them ; in which case, the husbandman is obliged to look 

 for the cratitires in another place, and fix them at the end of 

 the branches of those Fig-trees, the orni of which are in a fit 

 disposition to be pierced by the gnats; if they miss the op- 

 portunity, the orni falls, and the gnats of the cratitires fly 

 away. None but those that are well acquainted with this sort 

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