130 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



" I have never seen a seedling Sycomore Fig in Egypt, nor a fertilised 

 germ. On the other hand, Dr. Schweinfurth has found in Yemen that 

 the country is full of young Sycomores germinating from self-sown 

 seeds ; and he thinks that it is indigenous there, but not in Egypt." 



The Sycomore Fig must have been introduced at a very early age into 

 Egypt, for the wood was commonly used for the mummy cases ; and the 

 tree itself was adopted in the Egyptian cult as the " Tree of Life." It 

 is figured on the walls of the temple of Thothmes III. at Karnak, 

 being represented as dedicated to Hathor, and is here reproduced. 

 (Fig. 49.) , 



With regard to the antiquity of this custom of cutting open the Figs, 



Fig. 49. — The goddess Nuit in her sacred Sycomore bestowing bread and water of 



the next world. 



it is interesting to find that the modern practice in Egypt appears to 

 have been customary many hundreds of years ago. Thus the prophet 

 Amos described himself (vii. 14) as " a gatherer of Sycomore fruit " 

 (A.V.), or "a dresser of Sycomore trees" (R.V.). But the Hebrew 

 expression balas siqmlm is rendered by the LXX. trvKajuva, and by 



the Vulgate vellicans sycamina. 



The writers of the Septuagint appear, therefore, to have been familiar 

 with the process as described by Theophrastus, who writes : ttekti'iv ov 

 cvvarut av fit) i7rtKii(r6ij' ciAA' t^oytec bvvyu^ (ribrjpuuz iTTiKii^ovrTU'' a C* 

 ?u- iTriKt'ifrOri, rtT(t()T(un 7r£7rrfrot (" Hist. PI." iv. 2). Pliny also writes as 

 follows (" Nat. Hist." xiii. 14) : " It bears fruit not upon the branches, 

 but upon the trunk itself. The Fig is remarkable for its extreme sweet- 



