184 GARDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



2. Another, brought me by a native nurseryman from Cawn- 

 pore, bore a much handsomer fruit, of the size of a pullet's egg, 

 and when ripe of a deep purple colour. This, unless when very 

 ripe indeed, was deficient in flavour and rather insipid. 



These two varieties dropped their foliage and remained leaf- 

 less during the three or four months of the cold weather. About 

 March they broke out again into leaf, producing at the same time 

 their fruit buds, which ripened fruit in July. About this time, 

 too, a second crop was produced, which, however, never ripened. 



" Figs," I learnt, " are grown in the Punjab, of many varieties, 

 some of which, both black and white, are of very superior quality. 

 Two imported plants of the black Ischia Fig are growing in the 

 Society's garden." 



3. THE COMMON ENGLISH FIG. In passing through' the 

 Deccan in the month of March I found fine fruit of this for 

 sale very abundant. 



Some years ago Mr. H. Piddington sent a very large well- 

 formed Fig, the produce of his garden in Calcutta, to the Agri- 

 Horticultural Society with the following remarks : 



" I beg to send herewith a fine Fig, weighing two ounces (troy), 

 and six and a-half inches in circumference a size and weight, I 

 think, equal to good hot-house Figs in England. If dried and 

 flattened, this one would probably equal in size the largest Turkey 

 Fig. In spite of the severe season, I have had about three dozen of 

 very fine flavoured Figs from a very young tree, by the simple 

 precaution of shading the fruit by a linen or paper bag. My tree 

 is from Chandernagore ; and I shall note, for those who desire to 

 cultivate this delicious fruit, that the productive trees are those 

 with somewhat narrow, dark-green, and deeply-lobed leaves. The 

 variety with broad, light-green, but faintly-lobed leaves (which, 

 by the way, seems to be the only one in the Botanical Gardens) 

 never, that I have yet seen, ripens its fruit, though it produces 

 plenty." * 



The Fig is, notwithstanding, still a great rarity in Calcutta. 

 From some cause or other unknown, the locality seems very ill 

 suited to it. The two or three small stunted trees of the only 

 one variety they have in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens remain 

 as unproductive as they were at the time of Mr. Piddington's 

 communication. 



* ' Journal of the Agri-Horticultural Society,' vol. v. p. 24. 



