712 



ARBORETUM ET FRUTICF.TUM BRITANNICUM. 



fertile soils. Height 30 ft. to 60 ft. Introduced 

 in 1818. Flowers yellowish green ; June. Fruit 

 resembling a large Seville orange ; ripe in October. 

 Neither flowers nor fruit have yet been produced 

 in England. 



The leaves are ovate acuminate, of a bright 

 shining green, broad, with a cuspidate point, 3 or 

 3| inches long, and about 2 in. broad. The petiole 

 is often 1 in. long. The spines are simple, rather 

 strong, about 1 in. in length, and produced in tlie 

 axils of the leaves. The fruit, when ripe, is of a 

 golden colour, and on the tree has a splendid appear- 

 ance ; but, though eatable, it does not appear to be 

 any where used for human food. The wood is of a 

 bright yellow, very fine-grained, elastic, and on that 

 account used by the southern tribes of the American 

 Indians for bows. 



1386. M. aurantiaca. 



Genus IV. 



FrCUS Tourn. The Fig Tree. Lin. Syst. Polygamia Dioe^cia. 



Identification. Tourn.; T. Nees ab Esenbeck Gen. PI. FI. Germ., fasc. 3. ; Willd. Sp. PI., 4. 



p. 1131. 

 Synonymes. Figuier, Fr. : Feigenbaum. Ger. ; Fico, Ital. 

 Derivation. Some derive Ficus from foecimdns, on account of its abundant bearing ; and others 



from su/cos (Greek), or fag (Hebrew), the names for the fig tree in those languages. The fig tree 



has nearly the same name in all the European languages. 



Gen. Char. Flowers monoecious, inserted upon the interior surface of a hoi- j 

 low globular or pear-shaped fleshy receptacle, in whose tip is an orifice 

 closed with small scales ; those in the upper part male, the rest female. 

 Male flowers. Calyx 3-parted. Stamens 3. Female flowers. Calyx 5-cleft. 

 Stigmas 2. Fruit a utricle. {G. Don.) 



Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous; lobed. Stipules large, con- 

 volute. Floiuers within the fruit. Tr^e, deciduous ; native of the South { 

 of Europe and Asia ; sap milky; cuttings in good soil. j 



1 \. F. Ca'rica L. The comnwn Fig Tree. I 



I 



Identification. Lin. Sp., 1513. ; Willd. Sp., 4. p. 1131. ; N. Du Ham., 4. p. 198. ; 



Synonymes. F. commilnis Bauh. Pin. 457.; F. hOmilis and F. sylvestris Tourn. Inst.GGS.; Fi-, 



guier commun, Fr. ; gemeine Feigenbaum, Ger. 

 Engravings. N. Du Ham., t. 53. ; the plate of this tree in Arb. Brit., 1st edit., vol. vii. ; and ov 



fig. 1387. 



Spec. Char., Sfc. Leaves palmate and subtrilobate ; rough above, pubesceiu 

 beneath. {Willd.) A low deciduous tree. Asia, on the sea coast. Height: 

 15 ft. to 30 ft. Cultivated in Britain from time immemorial.; and ripeninii 

 its fruit against walls, in the chmate of London, in the month of September,, 



Vaiieties. Botanically, the common fig may be considered as existing in thretj f; 

 diflferent states: 1. Wild, in which the leaves are comparatively small 

 and not much cut ; and the fruit small, and sometimes blue and sometime 

 white. 2. Cultivated, with very large leaves, very deeply cut, such as th( 

 Blue Ischia and the Brunswick fig, and other sorts ; the fruit of some o 

 which is white, and of others dark. 3. Cultivated, with very large leave 

 not much cut, as the White Marseilles fig, and others with fruit of difFeren 

 colours. Those who are disposed to go farther may form three subvarietie 

 under each of these heads, according as the fruit is blue or black, red o 

 purple, yellow, white, or green. The garden varieties are very numerous 



