712 ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. 
fertile soils. Height 30 ft. to 60ft. Introduced 
in 1818. Flowers yellowish green ; June. Fruit 
resembling a large Seville orange ; ripe in October. 
Neither flowers nor fruit have yet been produced — 
in England. 
The leaves are ovate acuminate, of a bright 
shining green, broad, with a cuspidate point, 3 or 
33 inches long, and about 2in. broad. The petiole 
is often lin. long. The spines are simple, rather 
strong, about lin. in length, and produced in the 
axils of the leaves. The fruit, when ripe, is of a 
golden colour, and on the tree has a splendid appear- 
ance; but, though eatable, it does not appear to be 
any where used for human food. The wood is of a 
bright yellow, very fine-grained, elastic, and on that 
account used by the southern tribes of the American 
Indians for bows. 1386. M. aurantiaca, 
Genus IV. 
FYCUS Tourn, Tue Fie Tree. Lin. Syst. Polygamia Dice'cia. 
Identification. Tourn.; T. Nees'ab Esenbeck Gen. Pl. Fl. Germ., fasc. 3.; Willd. Sp. Pl., 4. 
Se os Figuier, Fr. ; Feigenbaum, Ger. ; Fico, Ital. 
Derivation. Some derive Ficus from facundus, on account of its abundant bearing ; and others 
from sukos (Greek), or fag (Hebrew), the names for the fig tree in those languages. The fig tree 
has nearly the same name in all the European languages. 
Gen. Char. Flowers moneecious, inserted upon the interior surface of a hol- 
low globular or pear-shaped fleshy receptacle, in whose tip is an orifice 
closed with small scales; those in the upper part male, the rest female. 
—Male flowers. Calyx 3-parted. Stamens 3.—Female flowers. Calyx 5-cleft. 
Stigmas 2. Fruit a utricle. (G. Don.) 
Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, deciduous; lobed. Stipules large, con- 
volute. Flowers within the fruit.— Tree, deciduous ; native of the South 
of Europe and Asia ; sap milky; cuttings in good soil. 
£1. F. Ca’rica L. The common Fig Tree. 
Identification. Lin. Sp., 1513. ; Willd. Sp., 4. p. 1131. ; N. Du Ham,, 4. p. 198. 
Synonymes. F. communis Bauh. Pin. 457.; F.himilis and F. sylvéstris Tourn. Inst. 663. ; Fi- 
guier commun, Fr. ; gemeine Feigenbaum, Ger. ‘ 
Engravings. N. Du Ham., t. 53.; the plate of this tree in Arb. Brit., Ist edit., vol. vii.; and our 
Sig. 1387. 
Spec. Char., §c. Leaves palmate and subtrilobate ; rough above, pubescent 
beneath. (Willd.) A low deciduous tree. Asia, on the sea coast. Height 
15 ft. to 30 ft. Cultivated in Britain from time immemorial. and ripening 
its fruit against walls, in the climate of London, in the month of September. 
Varieties, Botanically, the common fig may be considered as existing in three 
different states: — 1. Wild, in which the leaves are comparatively small, 
and not much cut; and the fruit small, and sometimes blue and sometimes 
white. 2. Cultivated, with very large leaves, very deeply cut, such as the 
Blue Ischia and the Brunswick fig, and other sorts; the fruit of some of 
which is white, and of others dark. 3. Cultivated, with very large leaves, 
not much cut, as the White Marseilles fig, and others with fruit of different 
colours. Those who are disposed to go farther may form three subvarieties 
under each of these heads, according as the fruit is blue or black, red or 
purple, yellow, white, or green. The garden varieties are very numerous ; 
