BOOK XV. XIX. 68-71 



soft to the feel. Onesicrilus reports that the figs in 

 Ilyrcania are much sweeter than ours and the trees 

 niore prolific, a single tree bearing 270 pecks of 

 fruit. Figs have been introduced among us from 

 othcr countries, for instance, Chalcis and Chios — of 

 the latter there are several varieties, inasmuch as 

 Lydian figs, which are purple, and breast-shaped 

 figs have a resemblance to the Chian ; also the 

 * pretty-sparrow ' figs, which are superior in the 

 flavour of their flesh and are the coolest of all figs. 

 For in regard to the African fig, as many people 

 prefer it to the whole of the other kinds, there is a 

 great question, inasmuch as this kind has only quite 

 recently crossed over into Africa. Also among black 

 figs the Alexandrian is named from its country of 

 origin — it has a cleft of a whitish colour, and it is 

 called the luxury fig ; among figs that ripen early 

 those of Rhodes and of Tivoli are also black. Eai'ly 

 figs also have the names of the persons who intro- 

 duced them — Livia, Pompey : the latter is the best 

 for a fig to be dried in the sun for use throughout the 

 year, together with the marsh fig and the fig with 

 marks all over it shaped like a reed leaf. There are 

 also the Herculaneum fig, the white-wax fig, and the 

 white plough fig, Avith a very small stalk, a very flat- 

 shaped kind. But the earliest fig is the purple fig, 

 which has a very long stalk ; it is accompanied by the 

 worst of the very small kinds, called the peopIe's fig. 

 On the other hand the kind that ripens latest, just 

 before winter, is the swallow fig. There are moreover 

 figs that bear both late and early, yielding two crops, 

 one white and one black, ripening with the harvest 

 and with the vintage. There is also a late fig named 

 from the hardness of its skin ; some of the Ghalcidic 



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