566 



FIG 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL: 



F I C 



of culture, know the critical moment of doing this ; and in 

 order to know it, their eye is perpetually fixed on the bud of 

 the fig; for that part not only indicates the time that the flies 

 are to issue forth, but also when the fig may be successfully 

 pierced : if the bud be too hard, and too compact, the gnat 

 cannot lay its eggs, and the fig drops when the bud is too open. 

 These three sorts of fruit are not good to eat ; their office is to 

 ripen the fruit of the Garden Fig-trees in the following manner. 

 During the months of June and July, the peasants take the 

 orni at a time that their gnats are ready to break out, and carry 

 them to the Garden Fig-trees ; if they omit the precise mo- 

 ment, the orni fall, and the fruit of the domestic or Garden 

 Fig-tree not ripening, will, in a very little time, fall in like 

 manner. The peasants are so well acquainted with these pre- 

 cious moments, that every morning, in making their inspec- 

 tion, they only transfer to their Garden Fig-trees such orni as 

 are well conditioned, or they would run the risk of losing their 

 crop. It is true, they have one remedy, and that is but an in- 

 different one ; it is to strew the ascolimbros, a very common 

 plant there, and in the fruit of which there is a sort of gnats 

 proper for piercing ; probably they are those of the orni, 

 which are used to hover about and plunder the flowers of this 

 plant. In short, the peasants so well order the orni, that their 

 gnats cause the fruit of the Garden Fig-tree to ripen in the 

 compass of forty days. These figs are very good fresh ; when 

 they would dry them, tlvey lay them in the sun for some time, 

 and then put them in an oven to keep them the rest of the 

 year. Barley-bread and dried figs, are the principal support 

 of the peasants and monks of the Archipelago; but their figs 

 are very inferior to those dried in Provence, Italy, and Spain : 

 the heat of the oven destroys all their delicacy and good 

 taste; but then, on the other hand, this heat kills the eggs 

 which the flies of the orni discharged therein, which eggs 

 would infallibly produce small worms, that would prejudice 

 these fruits. What an expense of time and pains is here fora 

 fig, and that but an indifferent one at last! I could not, says 

 TouniL-fort, sufficiently admire the patience of the Greeks, 

 busied above two months in carrying these flies from one tree 

 to another. I was soon told the reason ; one of their Fisc-tfees 

 usually produced between two and three hundred pounds of 

 figs, nod ours, in Provence, seldom above twenty-five. The 

 way in which these flics accelerate the maturity of the fruit 

 of the Garden Fig-tree, is probably by tearing the vessels, 

 while depositing their eggs, and thus causing the nutritious 

 jaice to extravasate : perhaps too, besides their eggs, they 

 leave in the fruit some sort of liquor, proper to cause a gentle 

 fermentation, and thereby make the flesh of the fig tender 

 and delicate. Jussieu doubts whether the succulency and 

 turgescence of the esculent fig be owing to the defluxion of 

 the nutritious juice, occasioned by the punctures of the in- 

 sects, or to tlie impregnation of the seeds from the farina, 

 conveyed by them. The sexual botanists have adopted the 

 latter cause, and regard it as one of the main props of their 

 system. Here, as in similar cases, two purposes are answered 

 at once, the impregnation of the seed, and the ripening of the 

 pulp. Our tigs in Provence, says Jussieu, and even at Paris, 

 ripen much sooner for having their eyes pricked with a straw 

 dipped in olive oil. Plums and pears pricked by some insects, 

 likewise ripen much the faster for it, and the flesh round such 

 puncture is better tasted than the rest. It is not to be dis- 

 puted hut that considerable change happens to the con texture 

 of fruits so pricked, just the same as to parts of animals 

 piercod with any sharp instrument. It is scarcely nussilile 

 well lo understand the ancient authors, who have written upon 

 capnftuathn, or husbanding and.'drcssing the wild Fi^-trcc, 

 without being well apprised of the above detailed ciicum- 



stanccs, the particulars whereof, says Tournefort, were con- 

 firmed to us, not only at Zia, Tinos, Mycone, and Scio, but in 



most of the other islands. Fig-trees are propagated in 



England, either by the suckers which are sent out from their 

 roots; or by layers, made by laying down their branches, which 

 in one year will put out roots sufficient to be removed ; or by 

 planting cuttings, which, if properly managed, will take root: 

 the first is a bad method, because all those trees which are 

 raised from suckers are very subject to send out great quan- 

 tities of suckers again from their roots, and the branches of 

 the suckers are not so compact as those of the layers, but are 

 fuller of sap, and in greater danger of being injured by the 

 frost; those plants which are propagated by layers are the best, 

 provided the layers be made from the branches of fruitful 

 trees; for those which are made from the suckers or shoots 

 produced from old stools, being very soft, and full of sap, are 

 in danger of suffering by the frost, and these will shoot greatly 

 into wood, but will not be very fruitful ; for when trees have 

 acquired a vicious habit while young, it is seldom that they 

 are ever brought to be fruitful afterwards; therefore the 

 shoots which are laid down, should be such as are woody, 

 compact, and well-ripened, not young shoots, full of sap, whose 

 vessels are large and open. The best time for laying down 

 the branches is in autumn; and if the winter should prove 

 very severe, if they be covered with some old tan, or any 

 other mulch, to keep the frost from penetrating the ground, 

 it will be of great service to them ; by the autumn following, 

 these will be sufficiently rooted by removing, when they should 

 be cut oft' from the old plants, because the branches at that 

 season, not being so full of sap as in the spring, will not bleed 

 so much as when cut off at that season. If the place be 

 ready to receive them, the layers should be transplanted in 

 autumn where they are to remain; but if not then, the 

 layers may remain till the spring, provided they arc separated 

 from the old plants in autumn. As they do not bear trans- 

 planting well when they are large, it is the better way to plant 

 diem first in places where they are to remain ; and after tbey 

 are planted, the surface of the ground about their roots should 

 be covered with mulch to keep out the frost; and if the 

 winter should prove very severe, it will be proper to cover 

 the branches with reeds, pease-haulm, straw, or some other 

 light covering; which will prevent their lender ends being 

 killed by the frost, which frequently happens where that pre- 

 caution is not taken. The other method of propagating these 

 trees is by cuttings, which should be taken from the trees in 

 autumn, for the reason before given : these must be chosen 

 from -such branches as are -compact, whose joints are neat 

 each other; and they should have a part of the former year's 

 wood at the bottom, with the top of each left entire, not 

 shortened, as is usually practised with other cuttings; then 

 they should be planted eight or nine inches deep, in a bed of 

 loamy earth, in a warm situation, covering the surface of the 

 ground three orfour inches thick with old tanner's hark, t< 

 out the frost; and in severe frost, their tops should be c< 

 with straw, pease-haulm, fern, or other li^ht covering;, to pro- 

 tect them from it. This covering should be removed in the 

 spring; but the tan may remain, for that will prevent the drying 

 winds of the spring, and the sun in summer, from penetrating 

 the ground, and will be of great use to secure the cuttings from 

 injury; these cuttinss will be rooted sufficiently by the fol- 

 lowing autumn, when they should be transplanted, and treated 

 in the same manner as the layers. If fruitful branches of these 

 trees are cut oil', and planted in pots or tubs filled with good 

 earth, and if these he plunged into a good hot-bed of tanner's 

 iiail; in til,' si-ive, they will put out fruit early in the spring, 

 which will ripen in the middle of May. 



