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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ON FIGS AND THEIK CULTURE AT CHISWICK. 



By Mr. A. F. Barron, Superintendent of the Gardens. 



The collection of Figs in the Society's Gardens at Chiswick is 

 probably the largest and finest that is to be found in the country. 

 They were for the most part collected by Dr. Hogg in the South 

 of France, and for many years a considerable amount of attention 

 has been given to their cultivation — especially in pots —and 

 careful observations made as to their distinctive merits, &c, 

 the Fig-house at Chiswick forming, during several months of the 

 year, a special feature of attraction to the Gardens. 



The home of the cultivated Fig would seem to be Syria and 

 along the shores of the Mediterranean through Northern Italy 

 and Southern France and Spain. In this country, excepting 

 along the South Coast and in sheltered situations near the sea, 

 Figs do not ripen their fruit without protection. At Tarring, 

 Arundel, &c, on the coast of Sussex many trees are grown in 

 the orchards as standards and annually bear immense quantities 

 of fruit, and on the walls in similar localities an abundance 

 of large and fine fruit is obtained. In the Channel Islands 

 Figs do well and the trees attain a large size, and, being trained 

 in many cases as arbours, afford delightful shade and have quite 

 a picturesque appearance. In the neighbourhood of London, Figs 

 seldom ripen out of doors. The plant is, however, quite at home 

 and makes a capital shrub in many parts of the City itself. The 

 original trees introduced into this country may still be seen 

 growing in the Bishop of London's garden at Fulham. Naturally 

 the Fig grows as a low bush or tree similar to a sturdy Apple, 

 but where supported or grown against a wall the branches are 

 more slender and dependent. 



Mode of Fig-groiving in France.— In the neighbourhood of 

 Paris Figs are grown in the open ground in a very unique 

 manner. The winters being too severe for the plants, shallow 

 pits, four or five feet in diameter and eighteen or twenty inches 

 deep, are formed in some warm situation, in which the trees are 

 planted. The first year they are cut down pretty closely, so 

 that they may produce a number of strong shoots, which are 

 allowed to grow freely during the summer. When the leaves 



