URTICACE.^ 



posed of the receptacle, calyces, and utriculi, all succulent and consolidated, 

 very juicy, sub-acid, turning from green to crimson, then red, finally reddish- 

 black ; ripe in August. 



Leaves alternate, ovate, cordate, or 3-5-lobed, petiolate, irregularly serrate, 

 acute, dark green, upper surface hispid, 4 ins. by 4 ins., young leaves pilose 

 beneath ; stipules lateral, small, linear, caducous. Autumn tint yellow^. 



A deciduous tree, 20-30 ft., with large round head ; JBra/iches horizontal ; 

 Bark rough, reddish-brown ; Buds seldom open before May ; tree slow of growth, 

 but long lived ; Wood used for cabinet-work. 



Native of Persia and Armenia ; introduced 1548. First planted at Syon 

 House. 



FIG, Ficus Caiica. 



Gardens, walls. May. In mild districts of the south this will grow as 

 a standard, but generally is best against a south or south-west wall. The best 

 crops of fruit are usually secured from trees planted in a compost of fibry loam, 

 brick rubbish, and old mortar by the side of a hard walk into which the roots 

 cannot easily ramify. Deformed, dead, or weak branches should be removed in 

 April or July, and the points of vigorous young shoots pinched in July. Any 

 fruits sufficiently advanced in early autumn to show the shape of the Fig should 

 be pinched off. Propagated by cuttings of previous year's growth, 6-9 ins. 

 long, in sandy soil under bell-glass in temperature of 65°-75° in spring ; layering 

 of shoots, October or November ; suckers in autumn ; seeds carefully cleaned 

 from pulp and kept till early spring, then sown in light soil in temperature 

 of 75^ 



Floxvers monoecious, entomophilous, proterogynous, minute, appearing 



with the leaves, enclosed, and hidden, in a pyriform hollow Heshy receptacle 



(hypanthodium) formed of the swollen floral axis, the sides of which have grown 



up around it, meeting at the top, forming an inverted flask-like spike with sessile 



flowers, in which the outside bearing the flowers has become introverted ; 3lalc 



flowers mostly in upper part ; Perianth 3-5-fid ; Stamens 3-5 ; Females in lower 



141 



