MORACEAE 135 



Plate 25. 



A. Ficus capensis Thunb. I. Twig. 2. Part of inflorescence with very young buds. 

 3. Part of inflorescence with some young figs (flowering), visited by wasps [Blastophaga) ; 

 also some ripe figs. 4. Ripe fig in long, section. A large specimen. 5. Blastophaga, 

 larva, taken from a fully grown but unripe fig. 6. Blastophaga, developed insect, escaped 

 from ripe fig. 10/1. 



B. Ficus cordata Thunb. with ripe fruits. In nature the bunches are hanging 

 (see Plate 24). 



Ficus. 



There are quite a considerable number of species of Ficus in South 

 Africa, some of them being very similar in foliage but different in their fruit. 

 They adapt themselves to various climates and localities, the same species 

 remaining either dwarf under extreme conditions or growing into a lofty tree 

 when more favoured by moisture and warmth, e.g. Ficus cordata. (Plate 24.) 



One of the largest species is Ficus natalensis, which occurs in the eastern 

 coast districts from Natal to the Limpopo, its trunk being occasionally up 

 to six feet in diameter. It often begins its life as an epiphyte on the trunk 

 of another tree, which it at length overwhelms by its weight or destroys 

 by depriving it of the necessary sunlight. [See Fig. 75 b and illustration of 

 Mimusops, vol. in.] If the roots of the Ficus have become sufficiently strong 

 before this happens, they will be able to support the tree during its further 

 life, otherwise it topples over and a ring of young trees may spring up from its 

 broken roots. The Wonderboom* on the northern slope of the Magaliesbergen 

 near Pretoria, Ficus salicifolia, has probably originated in such a way. 

 (Plate 26.) 



Ficus cordata, commonly called melkboom~f, is one of the most widely 

 spread South African trees. It always inhabits rocky situations and especially 

 cliffs of the central districts from Worcester northwards right beyond our 

 limits in Rhodesia and Damaraland. The roots penetrate deeply into the 

 fissures of the rock until they reach a sufficiently permanent supply of moisture, 

 while the stem flattens itself against the wall of the cliff to such an extent that 

 it is sometimes ten feet broad but one foot thick only. (Plate 24.) 



* A fuller account of this tree or rather family group of trees is given by 

 H. W. T. Wager in Addresses and papers of the Brit, and S. A. Assoc. Adv. Science, 

 Vol. in, 1905, and by Burtt-Davy in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. A. Vol. 11, 365, 1912. 



In the first named paper the species is referred to Ficus cordata Thunb., which it 

 resembles in its foliage, and in the other one it is named Ficus Pretoriae spec. nov. While 

 it differs from F. cordata (Plate 25) by the smaller and always more or less stipitate fruits, 

 it is not distinct from F. salicifolia Vahl, being one of the numerous forms of this variable 

 and widely spread species (Transvaal, Trop. and subtrop. Africa, Arabia). 



f Melkboom, meaning milk tree, is not the same thing as melkhout (milkwood). 

 The latter name belongs to Sideroxylon inerme (Sapotaceae, Vol. 111). Both contain milky 

 juice. 



