open Air. By the Rev. George Swayne. 431 



a leaf and a fruit-bud, as well as appreciate the whole of the 

 mischief occasioned by the frosts of the preceding winter. 



The best exemplification of the effect of the very simple 

 and easy manipulation above described, will be found in 

 the few branches of my Fig trees with the leaves and fruit 

 in various states of maturity, which I send herewith. 



You will observe that some of the specimens contain the 

 whole of the last and present years shoots ; and that on the 

 old wood there are Figs either ripe, or which would have 

 ripened, if they had been left on the trees, at almost every 

 eye or joint, except a few at their upper parts ; and I think 

 you cannot fail to perceive on the young wood the embryo 

 Figs, in preparation for the next year's crop, which 1 have 

 mentioned above. 



Could Mr. Wickiiam, to whose Paper on this subject I 

 have before referred, have an opportunity of examining 

 these specimens in a recent state, I cannot but believe that 

 he would be inclined to discard the opinion which he has 

 expressed in the second page of his Paper, namely ; that a 

 first crop of Figs, i. e. a crop capable of ripening in England, 

 could have been produced on that part alone of the year's 

 shoots which had grown after midsummer;* an opinion, 

 however, in which he is not singular, for it has hitherto been 

 taught by all writers on gardening, whose works I have 

 looked into, that Fig trees only produce their fruit at the 

 extremities of the last year's shoots. The author of the 

 Dictionary entitled Mawe and Abercrombies, says, under the 

 article Ficus carica ; "the fruit is always principally pro- 

 duced towards the extremities of the shoots," and again, as 



* See Horticultural Transactions, vol. iii. page 75. 



