

CHAP. c. ITRTICA % CEA:. JFVCUS. 1369 



dead ripe, which is known by a drop of sweet liquid which appears hanging 

 from the eye. The figs, being gathered, are placed on wicker hurdles, in a dry 

 airy shed ; and, when the dew is off, every morning they are exposed to the sun 

 during the hottest part of the day. To facilitate the progress of drying, the 

 figs are occasionally flattened with the hand ; and, in moist dull weather, they 

 are placed in rooms warmed by stoves. When thoroughly dried, they are 

 packed in rush baskets, or in boxes, in layers, alternately with long straw and 

 laurel leaves, and in this state they are sold to the merchants. In some parts 

 of the south of France, figs are prepared by dipping them in hot lye made from 

 the ashes of the fig tree, and then dried ; the use of lye being to harden their 

 skins. The white figs are preferred for the market, the violet kind being 

 retained in the country for the use of the inhabitants ; and forming in Greece, 

 with barley bread, their principal food for a great part of the year. Fowls 

 are remarkably fond of figs ; and, where they are abundant, as in the depart- 

 ment of the Var in France, and in the islands of the Archipelago, they are 

 given to horses, mules, and oxen, with a view to strengthen and bring them 

 into good condition, or to fatten them. 



Culture and J\Innagcinent of the Fig in the North of France. Except in the 

 gardens of private persons, where the fig is generally trained against walls, as 

 in England, there are only two or three places where it is grown for its fruit 

 as a standard ; and the principal of these is at Argenteuil,in the neighbourhood 

 of Paris. We visited the fig gardens there in 1828 ; and an account of them, 

 at length, will be found in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. vii. p. 262. The fig 

 trees are kept as low bushes, and the shoots are never allowed to attain more 

 than three or four years' growth; because it is necessary to bend them down to 

 the ground, and retain them there, by means of stakes, or stones, or a mass of 

 soil, to protect them from the drying effects of the frost. It is observed in the 

 Nouveau Court d' Agriculture, that the figs at Argenteuil are never brought to 

 such a degree of perfection as to please the palates of those who have been 

 accustomed to the figs of Marseilles. They are, says the writer, always either 

 insipid or half rotten ; and, even to bring them to this state, it is necessary 

 to pinch off the points of the shoots, in the same way as is done with the vine 

 when early grapes are wanted ; or with the pea, to accelerate the maturity of 

 the pods. An additional process is requisite in cold seasons, and at. the latter 

 end of every season ; and that is, the inserting of a small drop of oil, by means 

 of a straw, into the eye of the fruit ; which has the effect of destroying the 

 vital principle, and causing the fig to part readily from the shoot, like ripe 

 fruit ; after which it soon begins to decay. 



Caprijication. This process, which we shall hereafter describe, and which 

 has been in use for an unknown length of time in the Levant, was first men- 

 tioned by Tournefort; and, though it is laughed at by many of the French phy- 

 siologists of the present day, we cannot help thinking that it must be of some 

 important use. It is alleged by Bosc that it has no other object than that of 

 hastening the maturity of the crop; but others are of opinion that,!)} insuring 

 the fecundation of the stigma, it tends to increase the size of the fruit, and, by fill- 

 ing it with mature seeds, to render it more nourishing. Olivier, the botanical 

 traveller, asserts that, after a long residence in the islands of the Archipelago, he 

 is convinced of the inutility of the practice; and Bosc, though he allows that it 

 may hasten the maturity of the figs, as the larva of the pyrale pommonelle hastens 

 the maturity of the apple inFrance,yet believes that it has no effect in improving 

 either the size or the flavour of the fruit. M. Bernard, the author of a 

 Memoire sur le Figuier, and of the article on that tree in the Nouveau Du 

 Hamel, goes farther, and asserts that the figs which have undergone the process 

 of caprification are inferior to others in size, flavour, and the property of keep- 

 ing. In Egypt, where the sycamore fig is the prevailing species, an operation 

 is performed on the fruit, which is said to answer the purpose of caprification, 

 as far as respects early ripening. When the fruit is a third part of its size, a 

 slice is cut off the end of it, of a sufficient depth to remove all the stamens, 

 which have not by this time matured their fertilising dust. The wound is 



