Ficus carica, 
THE COMMON FIG-TREE. 
Synonymes. 
ILiNNiEus, Species Plantarum. 
Du Hamel, Traite des Arbres et Arbustes. 
Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum 
Figuier cultive, Figuier commun, Bou, Franc*;. 
Gemeiner Feigenbaum, Germany. 
Fico, Italy. 
Fig-tree, Common Fig-tree, Britain and Anglo-America. 
Derivation. The specific name carica is supposed to be derived from Caria, in Asia ; whence this species is said originally 
to have been brought. 
Engravings. Du Hamel, Traite des Arbres et Arbustes, pi. 53; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, vii., pi. 229; and tlu 
figures below. 
Specific Characters. Leaves palmate and sub-trilobate ; rough above, pubescent beneath. 
Description. 
HE Ficus carica is a large 
1 shrub or low tree, sometimes 
growing, under favourable 
*^^iP circumstances, to a height of 
twenty-five to thirty feet, with a trunk from a foot to 
a foot and a half in diameter ; but usually it does not 
much exceed one half of these dimensions. The 
branches, when young, are clothed with short hairs, 
but become smoother with age; and the bark of the 
trunk is of an ash-colour, or greenish-gray. The 
leaves, which are annual in the temperate zones, and 
perennial within the tropics, are comparatively small, 
in a wild state, entire, or not much cut; but, in the 
cultivated varieties, they are very large, cordate, deeply cut, with from three to 
five lobes, thick, rough on the upper surface, and pubescent beneath. The fruit 
consists of a pulp, containing a number of seed-like pericarps, enclosed in a blue 
or black, red or purple, green or yellow, or white rind. Botanically, it is a turbi- 
nate berry, hollow within, and is produced chiefly on the upper part of the shoots 
of the former year, in the axils of the leaves, on small, round peduncles. It first 
protrudes from the branches, without any visible flower, in the form of little buds, 
with a perforation at the end, but not opening or showing anything like petals, or 
any of the common organs of fructification. The flowers come to maturity 
iu concealment, in what is considered as the fruit; that is, an ordinary calyx 
or receptacle, which is usually, but not always, entire and connivent ; for, there 
are some few sorts, in which the fruit constantly opens when it approaches matu- 
rity, commonly dividing into four parts, that expand like the petals of a flower, 
io such an extent, that each division becomes perpendicular to its stem.* The 
male flowers, which are comparatively few, are inserted near the perforation at 
the extremity of the receptacle, or fruit ; but the female flowers are very numer- 
* The varieties which exhibit this singularity, are called, in the "Nouveau Du Hamel. " Barnissotes 
iud Vet -dales 
