FIG-TREE, 93 
The winter dressing of the fig-tree takes place immedi- 
ately after the fall of the leaf. The immature figs which 
may remain are removed, irregularities are corrected, and 
the shoots nailed neatly to the wall. Various modes of 
protecting the branches during winter have been adopted. 
At Argenteuil, where figs are cultivated on standards for 
the Paris market, the lower branches are bent downwards, 
and buried about six inches deep in the soil; while the up- 
per branches are tied together, and bound round with straw 
and litter. Mr. Swayne mentions that he wraps up the 
young shoots with waste paper. Mr. Forsyth recommends 
covering wall fig-trees with the spray of laurel or yew, and 
then tucking in short grass or moss (hypnum) among the 
spray. Mr. Smith, first at Ormiston Hall, and afterwards 
at Hopetoun House, has found (Cal. Hort. Soc. Mem., 
vol. ii.) a covering of spruce-fir branches to be very effec- 
tual. The branches are so placed as to overlap each other, 
and to form a layer nearly equally thick on every part of 
the tree. The foliage of the spruce branches remains green 
till March, and as the light and heat increase, the dried 
leaves gradually fall off, and admit air and sun to the fig 
branches below. 
Mr. Monk (Lond. Hort. Trans., vol. v.) states that the 
same fig-tree seldom produces fruit containing both perfect 
stamens and pistils, and conjectures that this is the cause 
of the fruit being so often prematurely shed. Caprifica- 
tion, or assisting the fructifying and maturation of figs, 
has often been sneered at; but here we see reason in that 
kind of it which consisted in hanging or shaking the 
branches of the wild fig (caprificus) over the cultivated tree 
at the time when both were in blossom. 
“ There is something very singular in the fructification 
of the fig; it has no visible flower, for the fruit arises im 
