308 PLTNy's natural HISTOET. [Book XV, 
As to the fig of Alexandria,^^ it is a black variety, with thi 
cleft inclining to white ; it has had the name given to it of *' 
the delicate fig : the Ehodian fig, too, and the Tibnrtine,^^ ' 
one of the early kinds, are black. Some of them, again, bear 
the name of the persons who were the first to introduce them, 
such, for instance, as the Livian^^ and the Pompeian^^ figs : this 
last variety is the best for drying in the sun and keeping for 
use, from year to year ; the same is the case, too, with the 
marisca,^ and the kind which has a leaf spotted all over like 
the reed.^"^ There is also the Herculanean fig, the albicerata,^ 
and the white aratia, a very large variety, with an extremely 
diminutive stalk. 
The earliest of them all is the porphyritis,^^ which has a 
stalk of remarkable length : it is closely followed by the popu- 
laris,^^ one of the very smallest of the figs, and so called from 
the low esteem in which it is held : on the other hand, the 
chelidonia^^ is a kind that ripens the last of all, and to- 
wards the beginning of winter. In addition to these, there are 
figs that are at the same time both late and early, as they bear 
two crops in the year, one white and the other black,^^ ripen- 
ing at harvest-time and vintage respectively. There is another 
late fig also, that has received its name from the singular 
hardness of its skin ; one of the Chalcidian varieties bears as 
many as three times in the year. It is at Tarentum only that 
the remarkably sweet fig is grown which is known by the 
name of ona.^' 
Speaking of figs, Cato has the following remarks : Plant 
the fig called the * marisca' on a chalky or open site, but for 
the African variety, the Herculanean, the Saguntine,^ the 
^ In Egypt. The Figue servantine, or cordeliere. 
52 Delicata.'' The ''bon-bouche." 
53 Fee suggests that this may have been the small early fig. 
5^ From Livia, the wife of Augustus. 
55 From. Pompeius Magnus. 56 Apparently meaning the "marsh" fig. 
57 The Laconian reed, Theophrastus says, B. iv. c. 12. 
5^ The " white-wax" fig. 
59 Fee queries whether it may not be the Grosse bourjasotte* 
60 Or people's" fig. The small early white fig. 
Or "swallow" -fig. 
^2 Or it may mean " white and black," that being the colour of the 
fig. Such a variety is still known. 
6s A Spanish variety ; those of the south of Spain are very highly^ 
esteemed. 
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