PHANEROGAMIA 



501 



latex tubes, and also by their peculiar inflorescences, frequently con- 

 sisting of numerous 

 axes which have become 

 more or less coherent. 

 Especially remarkable 

 in this respect are the 

 flowers and fruit of the 

 Fig-tree, Ficus carica 

 (Fig. 450). The fruit 

 known as the Fig is 

 the aggregated product 

 of the complete union 

 of the axes of a cymose 

 inflorescence. The suc- 

 culent part of the ripe 

 fruit consists in its outer 

 portions of the coherent 

 axes, and internally of 

 the perigones of the 

 flowers comprising the 

 inflorescence. The peri- 

 gone of each flower encloses 

 a single fruit. 



The Moraceae are represented in Germany only by cultiYated species, the Mul- 

 berry tree, Morus nigra, which is of Asiatic origin, and by the Fig tree, Ficus carica. 



Fig. 450. — Ficus carica. 1, Flowering branch ; 2, a female flower 

 cut through longitudinally ; 3, a male flower ; 4, a tig in 

 longitudinal section. (After Wossidlo.) 



a hard nutlet, the whole representing 



Fig. 451.— Cannabis sativa. 1, Part of a flowering shoot of a male plant ; 2, the same of a female 

 plant ; 3, a male flower ; 4, a female flower ; 5, fruit. (After Wossidlo.) 



The genus Ficus is the largest of the family, and is especially remarkable on account 

 of the great variety of forms it assumes, the size and beauty of many of its species, 

 and its economic value. The seed of the East Indian Banyan, Ficus bengalensis, 

 germinates on the branches of other trees, to which it is carried by birds. Grow- 

 ing first as an epiphyte, it sends down slender roots to the ground, which develop 



