PoLYGAMlAi ^ 
C R I M S 
T he Shape as well as Colour of this Fig is pleafing : it is a perfeft Glohe ' 
and when full ripen’d in its native Climate, it glows throuc^hout, tipoii 
the Surface, and within with the moft perfect Crimfon. ^ 
It grows to five and twenty Feet in Height, but is a weak and ill Ihap’d 
Tree ; always the better for Support and the more Luxuriant. The Roots are co- 
ver’d with a purple Bark, and the fame Colour ; tho’ it be loft upon the Stem, 
appears upon the young Shoots above the Irifertiohs of the Footftdks of the 
Leaves j and all about the Fruit. 
From various Parts of the T runk, and of the drooping Branches, where they 
are within the Reach of the moift Exhalations of the Ground, there grow out 
certain Threads, which, by Degrees j lengthening and acquiring more Thicknefs, 
hang at laft to the Ground, and pierce it, in the Manner of natural Roots pro- 
duc’d below the Surface. The World is well acquainted, that there is a Fig- 
tree, whofe Branches droop to the Earth, and there take Root again. It is a 
Property common alfo to our Bramble of the Hedges, and many other Kinds 
wherein it has pafs’d unregarded : this Way of producing Roots in the open 
Air, thd^ left attended to, is really more fingulaf. 
The Bark of the Trunk is a pale brownifti Grey 5 The Branches afe in a 
Manner jointed at fmall Diftances ; and from every Joint rifes a fingle Leaffup- 
ported on a thick, firm Footftalk. The Leaves themfelves are of a handfome 
Shape, oval, undivided, and obtufe. They are of a firm Subftance, and of a 
deep and ftrong green Colour, diverfify’d not inelegantly with bright Crimfon 
Veins. Thefe would alone recommend the Shrub to our Regard, if it never 
fruited with us, for they are very elegant, and they are ever green. 
The Fruit is nearly of the Size of our moft common Fig, but round 5 and 
it grows from the Branches in the fame Manner, no Flower having preceded. 
The Fructification of the Fig has been, till of very late Time, fo little under- 
ftood, that the Shrub was claft’d, even by the beft Writers, along with Ferns 
and Mofles among the Cryptogamia. This was a Difgrace to Botany as a Sci- 
ence I but it is fince remov’d. The Antients knew, that the wild Fig they 
call’d Caprifieus, was neceflary to the ripening of Fruit upon the Female 5 
and this, tho’ flowly, led the modern Botanifts to underftand the Courfe of 
Nature : which is thus. , 
That which we call the Fruit of the Fig, is properly a. fleihy, juicy Cup, con- 
taining many Flowers. Thefe in the common Fig-tree are either Hermaphrodite, 
or Female ; but upon the Caprifieus, they are Male ; and this Caprifieus is the 
fame Species ; as is the maleVallifneria, only differing in the ProduClion of fim- 
ply male Flowers. This is the Character of the Claft call’d Polygamia. With- 
out thefe male Flowers, the Seeds of the common Fig will not well ripen : tho’ 
the Fruit, as it is call’d, becomes pulpy, foft and efculent. Young Trees will 
be rais’d by the Seeds of fuch as have been impregnated from the male Plant j 
and not from thole of others. 
E N O R- 
. Ficus foliis ovatis integerrimis obtufis caule inferno radicato. Linn. 
Bengal Fig. 
34 ) 
ON FIG. 
