UPON THE CULTURE OF THE FIG-TREE, IN THE STOVE. 249 



to which their roots' are confined ; and they require some attention to 

 restrain them within the limits assigned to them ; but I have found the 

 following mode of treatment perfectly efficient and successful. 



Whenever a branch appears to be extending with too much luxuriance, 

 its point, at the tenth or twelfth leaf, is pressed between the finger and 

 thumb, without letting the nails come in contact with the bark, till the 

 soft succulent substance is felt to yield to the pressure. Such branch in 

 consequence ceases subsequently to elongate ; and the sap is repulsed to 

 be expended where it is more wanted. A fruit ripens at the base of each 

 leaf, and during the period in which the fruit is ripening, one or more of 

 the lateral buds shoots, and is subsequently subjected to the same treat- 

 ment, with the same result. When I have suffered such shoots to extend 

 freely to their natural length, I have found that a small part of them 

 only became productive either in the same or the ensuing season, though 

 I have seen that their buds obviously contained blossoms. I made 

 several experiments to obtain fruit in the following spring from other 

 parts of such branches, which were not successful ; but I ultimately 

 found that bending such branches, as far as could be done without danger 

 of breaking them, rendered them extremely fruitful ; and in the present 

 spring thirteen figs ripened perfectly upon a branch of this kind within 

 the space of ten inches. In training, the ends of all the shoots have 

 been made, as far as practicable, to point downwards. 



When I made my former communication upon this subject, I supposed 

 that the variety which had succeeded so well in my hothouse was the 

 large white fig, the cuttings from which I raised my plants having 

 been sent to me as such ; and that its size had been somewhat diminished 

 by the confinement of the roots to pots, and the exuberant produce of 

 fruit. I have, however, recently seen a private letter of the late Mr. 

 Speechley's (the well-known author of Treatises on the Culture of the 

 Pine-Apple and Vine), in which he speaks of a white fig that he had 

 found to succeed perfectly in high temperature, but the name of which 

 he does not appear to have known ; and I believe that which I am culti- 

 vating to be the one he has described. The form of the fruit, in its most 

 perfect state, is an oblate spheroid of nearly two inches in width ; but its 

 length often exceeds its breadth, and it then tapers to the point next the 

 stalk. 



