166 



On the Cultivation of Figs, 



to acquire maturity. Much air is then given ; and, if the weather 

 be not dry and bright, artificial heat is, to a small extent, again em- 

 ployed, to prevent the mature fruit becoming mouldy : and I be- 

 lieve, upon the evidence of many friends, who are well acquainted 

 with the merits of that fruit in different southern climates, that it 

 is rarely seen in a higher state of perfection than when ripened in 

 the manner above described. The Fig is naturally ripened in 

 shade, and in southern climates the birds and insects destroy, or 

 injure, most of the best, before it has acquired its perfect state 

 of maturity. 



The peach and nectarine acquire the greatest state of perfection 

 in the climate of England, (and the same treatment is, I believe 

 equally applicable to every species of fruit which requires the aid 

 of artificial heat) if they are to a certain extent brought forward 

 early in the spring, and subsequently subjected to the influence of 

 solar heat only. 



I have succeeded in ripening the Nerii Fig in a very considerable 

 state of perfection, by introducing the trees in pots against the 

 back wall of a stove in February, and removing them to a green- 

 house, out of which the plants had been taken in the middle of 

 May ; and this may be successfully done, whenever the vines in 

 the stove are confined to the rafters. 



I sent a sample of the Nerii Fig to the Horticultural Society 

 in the last autumn ; but it was very late in the season, in October. 

 I could have sent a better sample to the first Meeting in Sep- 

 tember, but I expected to have had some finer fruit to send to the 

 second Meeting ; which I should have had ; but some rats got into 

 my house, and destroyed almost the whole of it. Some of the figs 

 sent, though small, were, I believe, as to taste and flavour, not 

 without merit, though very dissimilar to the fruit in its highest state 

 of perfection : when its skin is so tender, that it is scarcely possible 



