228 FICUS CARICA 



and inserted at its base. Female flowers occupying the whole, 

 or all but the uppermost part of the receptacle, shortly stalked, 

 perianth very delicate and transparent, deeply cut into 3 5 acute 

 segments; ovary superior, hyaline, 1-celled (rarely 2 -celled ?), with 

 a single ovule, style lateral, tapering, much exceeding the peri- 

 anth and cut into two tapering, usually unequal, stigmas. "Fruit" 

 varying in size to nearly 3 inches long, smooth, yellowish stained 

 with purple, shining, consisting of the pear-shaped receptacle, 

 which has become enlarged, soft, and fleshy, with very numerous 

 minute seed-like nuts (true fruit) crowded over its inner surface, 

 surrounded by the remains of the perianths. Nut 1-celled, pericarp 

 yellow, brittle ; seed solitary, suspended, embryo strongly curved 

 lying in a fleshy endosperm. 



Habitat. The Fig tree is native in Syria and some adjacent 

 parts of Asia Minor, extending, in a wild state, perhaps to the north- 

 west confines of India, but, as in the case of universally cultivated 

 plants generally, it is not easy to distinguish the truly wild area. 

 It was very early introduced into the Mediterranean countries of 

 Europe and spread with civilisation over the whole of that conti- 

 nent ; it is now found in cultivation in all the temperate and warmer 

 countries of both hemispheres. It ripens its fruit well in England 

 in warm seasons. The form of the leaves is very variable, some 

 trees having them cordate-ovate, or faintly three-lobed ; whilst, on 

 the other hand, there are forms with small, deeply-cut, sub-pin- 

 natifid leaves ; the size and amount of hairiness also varies consider- 

 ably. The fruit is sometimes green or white, even when fully ripe. 

 On the varieties of the wild and cultivated fig, reference mustbe made 

 to Gasparrini's papers quoted below, where they are considered 

 as several species under two genera (Ficus and Caprificus). It is 

 remarkable that the nuts in many kinds of fig are found to be empty 

 (no embryo being developed), although the "fruit" has thoroughly 

 ripened. The male flowers are rarely found, and, it is said, only 

 in those receptacles which are produced early in the lowest axils. 



Gasparrini, Nova Genera (1844), and Ricerche sulla natura del 

 Caprifico (1845) ; Parlatore, Fl. Ital. ; Brandis, Forest Fl. Ind., 

 p. 418; Lindl., PL Med., p. 487. 



