AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT. 35 



The wife of Nabal appeased the wrath of the fugitive David, we read, by a present that included 

 some cakes of figs ; while We also read of its use medicinally in the Old Testament history, by 

 King Hezekiah, some 2,500 years ago. The Athenians attached such value to it that the export 

 of its fruit was forbidden ; while at Rome, in the Bacchic rites, it was carried next to the vine as 

 a symbol of plenty and joy. The stems of the Fig exude, when broken, a milky, tenacious, and 

 very strong-smelling juice. About 900 tons of the dried fruit are annually imported into Britain, 

 chiefly from Greece and Turkey ; those from the neighbourhood of Smyrna are considered the 

 best. Botanically, the fruit of the Fig is very curious and interesting ; but space presses, and we 

 must refer our readers for full information to any good work on structural botany. Other in- 

 teresting species are the F. Indica, F, elastica, F. religiosa, and F. sycomorus. The first of these 

 is the celebrated Banyan tree of India^its singular aerial roots have been already referred to ; 

 by means of these the tree spreads to an almost incredible extent, many of the trees being 

 more than five hundred yards round the circumference of the branches : the tenacious juice that 

 exudes from the tree is used as bird-lime. Though many of the trunks are nine to ten feet in 

 diameter, the wood is soft and porous, and of no economic value. The viscid milky fluid that 

 flows from excisions made in the wood of F^ elastica furnishes one of the commercial varieties of 

 caoutchouc, though it is inferior to that produced from the Brazilian Siphonia elastica. The F. 

 religiosa, or Peepul Tree, is one of the common trees of India, being very extensively planted 

 near houses, for the sake of the welcome shade thrown by its huge mass of foliage. It' derives its, 

 specific name, religiosa, from the veneration in which it is held by the Hindoos, one of their great 

 deities, Vishnu, having, according to their mythological teaching, been born beneath its branches. 

 The F. sycomorus is an Egyptian species, and, like the last, is extensively planted for its grateful 

 shade. It is the Sycamore or Sycamore-fig, of the Biblical narrative. 



Fig. 1 70 is the form, and a very curious one, of the leaf of the Tulip Tree ( Liriodendron 

 tulipifera), a native of North America. It was introduced into England in 1663,. It flowers, 

 here freely during June and July, but in this country rarely ripens its seeds ; though, in other 

 respects, the climate seems to suit it, as it grows freely in the open air, often attaining a height of 

 upwards of one hundred feet. Its English name Tulip Tree, and the botanical tulipifera, are 

 both given from the resemblance of its yellow and orange flowers, both in size and colour, to the 

 flowers of the Tulip. Many of the leaves are larger than the one here shown \ but all alike are 

 of the curiously four-lobed and truncated form of the present example. 



Figs. 171 and 1 72 are the leaves of the Sida hastata, and of the Phelloderma cuneato-ovata, 

 respectively. The plants have no English names : the first is a native of Mexico, the second, of 

 Chili. The Kolreuteria paniculata, a Chinese tree, affords us the very graceful leaf shown . in fig. 

 173. The plant has been introduced into England since 1763; specimens of it may be seen 

 growing in the open air in Kensington Gardens, near London. The delicate gradation and 

 variation of form in the different members comprising the leaf are very beautiful features : points 

 well deserving attentive study. 



The leaf of the Jute (Corchorus capsularis) is the subject of our next illustration (fig. 174). 

 Though similar in general form to many leaves that we are familiar with, the two elongated forms 

 at the base of the leaf give it a quaint individuality of its own. The plant has, within the last 

 few years, been very largely grown in India for the fibre it produces — a fibre a good deal used in the 

 manufacture of bales and sacks for the export of rice, sugar, cotton, &c., and less legitimately as a 

 means of lowering the quality of silk, as the fibre is very fine, and of a satiny lustre, so that the 

 fraud is not easily detected. Jute is an annual, attaining a height of from four to fourteen feet. ' 

 The flowers are small, and have five rather finely-cut yellow petals. It is estimated that about 

 120,000 tons of fibre are manufactured in India, while about 80,000 tons of the raw material are 

 each year exported to Great Britain. Almost the whole of the jute that reaches our shores finds 

 its way to Dundee. The cost of the fibre, on its arrival at the factory, is about ^20 per ton, 

 though, owing to scarcity at a given time, or the quality of the sample, this price is sometimes 

 considerably exceeded. Many thousands of persons are now employed in the various processes 

 of manufacture; though, in 1822, a Mr. Neish, a merchant of Dundee, having received a small 

 quantity of jute, was glad, after keeping it some years, to sell it off" at a nominal price to get it out 

 of the way. At the present date it is estimated that capital amounting to over five millions 

 sterling is invested in the jute factories of Dundee and its vicinity. 



The leaf of the Maple (Acer campestre) is that chosen for the last illustration on the plate. 

 The Maple is a common hedge-row tree throughout England, though it is somewhat scarcer both 

 in Scotland and Ireland. The leaves and fruit were largely employed, during the 14th century, in 

 the wood and stone carving of our Cathedrals, and also in the stained glass and illuminated MSS. 

 of that period. It is, in fact, like the Oak or Buttercup, one of the most characteristic forms seen 

 in the ornament of that time. Very good examples of it may be seen at Southwell, Lincoln, and 



