Ill 
nCUS NITIDA. 
Shining-leaved Fig. 
POLYGAMIA DKECIA.— Nat. Okd. URTICEJE. 
Gen. Char. — Receptaculum commune subsphaericum, carnosum, connivens, 
flosculos numerosos distinctos occultans. Masc. Col. 3-partitus. Cor. 0. 
Stam. 1-3. FcEM. Cal. 3-5 partibus. Cor. 0. Pistillum 1. Semen uni- 
cura. — W. 
Ficus nitida ; foliis obovato-ellipticis glabris, venulis anastomosantibus, 
fructibus geminatis sessilibus depresso-sphaericis. 
F. nitida, Thunb. Diss, de Fic. n. 14. (Willd.) — Willd. Sp. PL v. iv. p. 1145. 
— Sm. in Rees' Cycl. — Rheede, Hort. Malabar, v. iii. p. 69. t. 55. 
A tree much branched and covered with greyish wrinkled bark. Leaves nume- 
rous, 2 or 3 inches in length, obovato-elliptical, quite entire, obtuse, (rarely 
ending in a very short blunted acumen), coriaceous, dark green, glabrous 
and somewhat shining above, pale green beneath ; there are several pa- 
rallel nerves which meet at their extremities within the margin, and nu- 
merous smaller ones or veinlets branching off from them, and anasto- 
mosing, but so minute as to be scarcely discernible by the naked eye : 
petiole from half to three quarters of an inch long, grooved above. 
The receptacles are produced in pairs from the axils of the leaves, and are at 
first covered with thin, concave, fleshy green scales, at length enlarging 
to about the size of a black currant, when the thin scales remain at the 
base. The fruit is sessile, globular, but depressed upon the top, where 
the small orifice is closed by three connivent scales, of a greenish-brown 
colour, slightly warted : within covered with numerous, small, membra- 
naceous, pale rose-coloured scales, and numerous whitish florets, both 
male and female : these are pedicellated, and both have unquestionably a 
single perianth of 3 narrow, obovate, membranaceous leaflets. The rnale 
Jhret has a single stamen (never 3), of which the filament is short, the 
anther ovate, of 2 longitudinal cells ; The female Jhret has one pistil: ger- 
men ovate, pedicellated ; sti/le filiform, lateral : ovule single, pendent. 
Received from Mr Shepherd under the name of F. nitida, 
and as having heen sent to the Liverpool Botanic Garden from 
the West Indies. The F. nitida of Thunberg, Willde- 
VOL. II. 
