368 The Figs 



The fibrous bark is of value in paper-making and is one of the sources of the 

 bark cloth or Tapa of the South Sea islanders. The wood is light in color and 

 weight, even-grained but soft. 



The generic name refers to the use of its bark in paper making. 



IV. THE FIGS 



GENUS FICUS [TOURNEFORT] LINN^US 



ICUS is a ver}' large and complex genus, consisting of some 600 species 

 of trees, shnabs, or woody cHmbers, some of w^hich are parasites on other 

 trees. The sap is milk-hke. They are widely distributed throughout 

 the American tropics, from Florida to the Argentine Republic, but are 

 especially numerous in the islands of the Pacific and in southern Asia. Some fossil 

 species are recorded from the Cretaceous formations of Europe and from the Terti- 

 ary formations of North America. 



They have thick leathery alternate, rarely opposite, deciduous or persistent, 

 variously margined leaves. The stipules are interpetiolar and early deciduous. 

 The flowers are monoecious, rarely dioecious, and borne on the inside of hollow 

 receptacles which are variously situated and subtended, but are usually borne in the 

 axils of leaves or leaf scars. Staminate and pistillate flowers are usually borne 

 in different receptacles, but sometimes together. The staminate flowers are nearly 

 sessile, their perianth 2- to 6-parted, sometimes wanting; stamens i or 2, rarely 

 3, the filaments erect, and united throughout their length when more than one; 

 anthers innate or adnate, ovate, broad, nearly round, 2-celled, opening lengthwise; 

 there is no trace of an ovary. The pistillate flowers have a narrower lobed perianth 

 or rarely none; the ovary is sessile, i-celled; the style is lateral, elongated, the 

 stigma various, club-shaped, cylindric, peltate, or 2-lobed; ovary solitary, sus- 

 pended or horizontal. The minute hard fruits are enclosed in the enlarged thick- 

 ened and succulent receptacle. 



The genus is of much economic importance. Besides the common Fig there 

 are several others of great value. India rubber is produced from Ficus elastica 

 Roxburgh, a native of Assam, which is also a much prized shade tree in the tropics; 

 it is the well-known and popular India rubber plant of our consen^atories and 

 parlors. The Buddhists' sacred Peepul tree, Ficus religiosa Linnaeus, is also an 

 important and much valued shade tree, planted throughout tropical countries; 

 several other species are also important and popular tropical shade trees. The 

 name of the genus is the ancient classic name of the Fig tree, Ficus Carica Linnaeus, 

 which is the type species. 



Our species are: 



Leaves entire, smooth, evergreen; fruit small, globose, or obovoid, inedible. 



Fruit sessile. i. F. aurea. 



Fruit stalked. 2. F. hrevijolia. 



Leaves lobed, rough and hairy; fruit large, pyriform, edible. 3. F. Carica. 



