681 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



The fig tree is frequently spoken of in the scriptures and in the classics. 

 It foimcd a prominent article of food among the eastern nations, and was 

 highly valued by them, so much so that the Athenians forbid the exportation 

 of such as grew at a place near their city, where tradition said that figs first 

 grew. This spot was called " Hiera Suke, or the place of the sacred fig 

 tree," and Aie fruit here grown was very highly prized by them. Those who 

 gave information of the fruit being sold contrary to law were called Syko- 

 phaiitai, or " revcalers of figs," from whence is derived our English word 

 vsycophant, to denote a mean, dastardly person, for the information was given 

 frequently maliciously and falsely. 



The island of Naxos, in the Egean sea, was noted for the superior quality 

 of its figs, which are said to have been especially cherished by Bacchus, the 

 tutelary god gf the island, who was there called " Mcilechios," or "the gra- 

 cious," because he first taught them to use this fruit. He was also thought 

 to have derived his corpulency and vigor from the use of this fruit, hence 

 the Romans carried the fig next to the vine in their Bacchanalian pro- 

 cessions. 



Adam and Eve are said to have made themselves aprons or girdles of fig 

 leaves, but I presume that this is another wrong translation. If it is a correct 

 one, then it is an early instance of ascetic penance, for the acid of the plant 

 will produce blisters, and the leaves are so rough that they would produce 

 excoriations nearly as rapidly as a sinapism. It is probably a mere legend 

 growing out of the Hebrew name for the fig tree, viz.: Thacra, or the " tree 

 of grief." I am tempted to relate an anecdote in relation to the fig, which, 

 although not in any classical work, is related to the classics. 



Dr. Pococke, in 1648, first introduced the fig tree into England. One was 

 planted in the garden of Oxford college. Dr. Kennicott, the celebrated He- 

 brew scholar and compiler of the Polyglot Bible, was very fond of this fruit, 

 and seeing a very fine one on the tree, attached a label to it on which was 

 written, " Dr. Kennicott's fig." A waggish student noticed it, and when the 

 fruit was ripe plucked it, exchanging the label for one on which was written 

 " a fig for Dr. Kennicott." 



What clusters of associations rise up at the mention of the vine. The 

 classics, one might think, were written under its shade, their pages so ex- 

 hale the sweet odor of its fruit. Throughout the scriptures continual mention 

 is made of it. It was the emblem of fruitfulncss, happiness and prosperity. 

 Its cultivation descends from the remotest antiquity, and with the fig and 

 apple, or more properly the orange, it is the earliest mentioned of all fruit. 

 Judging from Noah's success as a vine grower so shortly after the deluge, it 

 is not improbable but that its cultivation was well understood by the Antedi- 

 luvians. In Judea it arrived at great perfection, and modern travelers bear 

 evidence to the extraordinary size of the bunches there grown, fully corro- 

 borating the scriptural statements relative to those grown in the valley of 

 Eschol. We find Solomon had an extensive vipcyard at Baalhamon, which he 

 let at an annual rental of 1,000 pieces of silver, and we also find Moses giving 

 directions as to its cultivation. 



The heathen nations had a great veneration for the vine, and it is said 

 that Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, wrote a treatise upon its cultiva- 

 tion. Among the Greeks the vine was sacred to Bacchus, who they said 



