1366 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICKITM. PART III. 



Engravings. Mill. Io., t. 73. ; Lam. 111., t. 8d!. ; N. Du Ham., t. 53 ; and the plate of this tree in our 

 last Volume. 



Spec. Char., $r. Leaves palmate and subtrilobate ; rough above, pubescent 

 beneath. ( JIV/A/.) A low deciduous tree, a native of the East, cultivated in 

 Britain from time immemorial ; and ripening its fruit against walls, in the 

 climate of London, in the month of September. 



Varieties. Botanically, the common fig may be considered as existing in three 

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

 not much cut ; and the fruit small, and sometimes blue and sometimes white. 

 2. Cultivated, with very large leaves, very deeply cut, such as the blue 

 Ischia and the Brunswick fig, and other sorts ; the fruit of some of which is 

 white, and of others dark. 3. Cultivated, with very large leaves, not much cut, 

 as the white Marseilles fig, and others with fruit of different colours. Those 

 who are disposed to go farther may form three subvarieties under each of 

 these heads, according as the fruit is blue or black, red or purple, or 

 yellow, white, or green. 



Garden Varieties. These are very numerous. In the Nouveau I)n ]lm< /, a 

 selection of 36 choice sorts is given, and several of them figured. In the 

 Horticultural Society's Fruit Catalogue for 1831,89 sorts are enumerated, 

 independently of synonymes. In the Encyc. of Gard., ed. 1835, a selection 

 of 22 sorts is given for a large garden ; and also selections for smaller gardens. 

 For an arboretum in the climate of London, and to be treated as standards, we 

 would recommend the wild fig (which has the leaves generally entire, and 

 of which there is a standard tree in the Twickenham Botanic Garden), the 

 white Marseilles, the Brunswick, and the small brown Ischia. The latter 

 will, in very fine seasons, and in warm situations in the climate of London, 

 ripen a few fruit on a standard in the open air. 



Description, $c. The common fig is a low, deciduous tree, rarely exceeding 

 20 ft. in height as a standard, even in the south of Europe ; with large deeply 

 lobed leaves, rough on the upper surface, and pubescent beneath. The 

 branches are clothed with short hairs, and the bark of the trunk is greenish. 

 The fig is a native of the west of Asia and the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 both in Europe and Africa. In no country is it found in elevated situa- 

 tions, or at a distance from the sea. Hence its abundance in the islands of 

 the Archipelago, and on the shores of the adjoining continents. It has been 

 cultivated from time immemorial ; and, indeed, the fig was said to have been 

 the first fruit eaten by man. In the Bible, we read frequently of the fig tree, 

 both in the Old and New Testament. Among the Greeks, we find, by the 

 laws of Lycurgus, that figs formed a part of the ordinary food of the Spartans. 

 The Athenians were so choice of their figs, that they did not allow them to be 

 exported; and the informers against those who broke this law, being called 

 sukophantai, from two Greek words, signifying the discoverers of figs, gave 

 rise to our modern word sycophant. The fig tree under which Romulus and 

 Remus were suckled, and the basket of figs in which the asp was conveyed 

 to Cleopatra, are examples familiar to every one of the frequency of the allu- 

 sions to this tree in ancient history. At Rome, the fig was carried next to 

 the vine in the processions of Bacchus, who was supposed to have derived his 

 corpulency and vigour from this fruit, and not from the grape. Pliny, also, 

 recommends figs as being nutritive and restorative ; and it appears from him, 

 and other ancient writers, that they were given to professed champions and 

 wrestlers, to refresh and strengthen them. Pliny mentions six different kinds 

 of fig, enumerating the peculiar qualities of each. 



The first fig trees planted in England are said to have been brought from 

 Italy in 1548, in the reign of Henry VIII., by Cardinal Pole, and placed by 

 him against the walls of the archiepiscopai palace at Lambeth. In Miller's 

 time, these two trees covered a surface of 50 ft. in height, and 40 ft. in breadth ; 

 and the diameter of the trunk of one tree was 9^ in., and of the other 7 in. 

 These trees were much injured by the severe winter of 1813-14; but the 

 main stems being cut down, they recovered, so as in 1817 to be in tolerable 



