172 Effects produced by Ringing Fig Trees. 



fruit. Some of its branches were ringed last year. This 

 summer, it brought some spring Figs to maturity, but they 

 were few. I believe the crop had mostly been protruded in 

 the autumn, and had fallen off in the winter. After mid- 

 summer, it put forth a most abundant crop of summer Figs 

 on the spring branches of the ringed limbs : six, seven, and 

 eight Figs on most of these branches ; indeed, all the 

 branches, which had been sprouted forth this spring on the 

 ringed limbs, produced a Fig from almost every joint, and 

 from some joints two ; so that, when they came to swell and 

 ripen, many touched each other. They began to appear 

 about the end of June, and to be ripe about the beginning 

 of October. They were double the ordinary size, and of 

 good quality ; the tear appeared at the eye when they were 

 ripe, and even dropped from some. When they were about 

 a quarter grown, I split one down with my knife, from the 

 eye to near the stalk, and into the cleft I stuck a small bunch 

 of anthers cut out of a Fig from an anther-bearing Fig tree, 

 which was growing against the garden wall, and had at that 

 time its anthers within the Figs mature. This split Fig ap- 

 peared to suffer no damage from such treatment ; but con- 

 tinued to increase in size, and became ripe on the 23d of 

 August, about six weeks before all the other summer Figs 

 on the tree ; though there were several on the same branch 

 both above and below it. One thing was observable, and, I 

 think, was a consequence of the Fig having been split : when 

 it had made its last swell, and the germs had become pulpy, 

 they speedily became mouldy, and the mouldiness spread to 

 the outward coat of the Fig, so that it could not be permit- 

 ted to hang on the branch till dead ripe, in which state Figs 



