FESTUCA 



FICUS 



1229 



Koch). HARD FESCUE. Blades firm and comparatively 

 thick, 3^1inediam., often rough. Eu. Pasture mixtures, 

 vaginata, Waldst. & Kit. (F. amethystina, Hort., 

 not Linn.). Sheaths and panicles purplish: foliage 

 bluish: panicle 8 in. long. Eu. Used for ornament. 



A. S. HITCHCOCK. 



FETTICUS. Another name for Corn-Salad. 

 FEVER-BUSH: Benzoin. 

 FEVERFEW: Chrysanthemum Parlhenium. 

 FEVER-TREE: Pinckneya jiubens. 

 FEVERWORT: Triosteum. 



FIBER PLANTS are treated only incidentally in this 

 work, and with particular reference to the horticultural 

 values of the groups to which they belong. See Cyclo. 

 Amer. Agric., Vol. II, p. 281. 



FICUS (ancient Latin name). Moracex. The fig, 

 the India rubber plant, the banyan tree and the creep- 

 ing fig of conservatory walls belong to this vast and nat- 

 ural genus, which has over 600 species scattered through 

 the warmer regions of the world. 



Ficus has no near ally of garden value. It is a genus 

 of trees or shrubs, often climbers, with milky juice. In 

 the common fig the Ivs. are deeply lobed, but in most 

 of the other species they are entire or else the margin 

 is wavy or has a few teeth or an occasional small lobe. 

 The Ivs. are nearly always alternate, F. hispida being 

 the only species of those described below which has 

 opposite Ivs. The foliage in Ficus varies from leathery 

 to membranous, and is variable in venation, so the 

 veins are very helpful in telling the species apart. 

 Ficus is monoecious or rarely dioecious, the apetalous 

 or sometimes naked minute fls. being borne inside a 

 hollow more or less closed receptacle ; stamens 1-3, 

 with short and united filaments ; pistillate fls. with 1- 

 celled sessile ovary, ripening into an achene that is 

 buried in the receptacle. What the horticulturist calls 

 the fig, or fruit, is the fleshy receptacle, while the fruit 

 of the botanist is the seed inside (Fig. 1500). In the 

 following account, fruit is used instead of receptacle. 



The fertilization or caprification of the fig is one of 

 the most interesting and complicated chapters in nat- 

 ural history, and is of great practical importance. See 

 Fig, where the culture of F. Carica is discussed. 



The most important ornamental plant in the genus 

 is the India rubber plant (F. elastica), which ranks 

 amongst the most popular foliage plants for home 

 use indoors. This is not the most important rubber- 

 producing plant, both Hevea brasiliensis and Castillo, 

 elastica being producers of more and finer rubber. 



The creeping fig (F. pumila, better known as F. 

 repens or F. stipulata) is one of the commonest and best 

 climbers for covering conservatory walls. It clings close 

 and makes a dense mat of foliage, which is about as 

 dark in color as the English ivy. The plant has been 

 cultivated since 1771, but within the last half-century 

 has come to be recognized as the best plant for its special 

 purpose. Once in a long while it fruits in conservato- 

 ries, and the fruiting branches are very unlike the bar- 

 ren ones. They stand out from the conservatory wall 

 instead of lying flat and close. The leaves of the barren 

 branches are less than an inch long and heart-shaped, 

 with one side longer than the other at the base and a 

 very short petiole; the leaves of fruiting branches are 2 

 to 3 inches long, elliptic-oblong, narrowed at the base, 

 and with a petiole sometimes % inch long (Fig. 1501). 



Among the many wonders of the genus Ficus are 

 the epiphytal habit of some, the huge spread of the 

 banyan tree (F. benghalensis) , and the fact that some 

 species ripen their fruits under ground. Some of the 

 tallest tropical trees are members of this genus, and 

 often they begin life by climbing upon other trees. 

 The ficus often overtops and outlives the other tree, 



which may be seen in every stage of decay, or may have 

 entirely disappeared, leaving the giant climber twined 

 spirally around a great hollow cylinder. The banyan 

 tree sends down some of its branches (or aerial roots) 

 into the soil, these take root, make new trunks, and 

 eventually produce a great forest, in which it is impos- 

 sible to tell the original trunk. The banyan in the 



botanic gardens at Cal- 

 cutta sprang from a seed 

 probably dropped by a 

 passing bird into the 

 crown of a date palm a 

 little more than a century 

 ago. The main trunk not 

 many years ago, was 42 

 feet in circumference, with 

 232 additional trunks, 

 many of them 8 to 10 feet 

 in circumference, and the 

 branches extend over an 

 area 850 feet in circum- 

 ference, forming a dense 

 evergreen canopy through 

 which sunlight never pene- 

 trates. The banyan under 

 which Alexander camped, 

 and which is said to have 

 sheltered 7,000 men, now 

 measures 2,000 ft. in cir- 

 cumference and has 3,000 

 trunks. Other species 

 have the same method of 

 propagation, but F. beng- 

 halensis is the most 

 famous. 



The various species are 

 cultivated both indoors 

 northward and as shade 

 and fruit trees in Florida 

 and California. In this 

 country the most impor- 

 tant commercially is the 

 fig, Ficus Carica, now 

 widely grown in Califor- 

 nia. For the botanical 

 treatment of this difficult 

 genus recourse has been had to King's "The species of 

 the Indo-Malayan and Chinese countries" in Ann. 

 Bot. Gard. Calcutta 1 :185 pp. + 232 plates, 1888, and 

 wherever possible below reference is made to the 

 splendid illustrations of that work, thus, K. 130.= 

 King, plate 130. For the African species the recent 

 treatment of Mildbraed and Burret on Die afrika- 

 nischen Arten der Gattung Ficus. Engler's Bot. Jahrb. 

 46:163-269 (1911), has been consulted. 



The cultivation of Ficus elastica. (H. A. Siebrecht.) 



The rubber plant (Ficus elastica) which is known 

 all over this country, is perhaps the most popular and 

 satisfactory house plant that has ever been cultivated. 

 It is a plant for the million. Some florists have several 

 houses especially devoted to the propagation and culti- 

 vation of this tough and thrifty plant. There are also 

 thousands upon thousands of young plants or rooted 

 cuttings from thumb-pots imported into this country, 

 especially from Belgium and Holland, for marketing 

 every spring. It is estimated that from 80,000 to 

 100,000 rubber plants are sold in America in a single 

 year. There are several varieties of the rubber plant, 

 but the true Ficus elastica is the best, both for grow- 

 ing and for selling. It can be easily told from the 

 smaller-leaved variety, which is smaller and lighter 

 colored in all its parts, the stem being smoother, and 

 the sheath that covers the young leaves lacking the 

 brown tint, which often runs into a bright Indian red. 



1499. Festuca ovina. 



