THE FIG. 
289 
interior of a fleshy receptacle which is called, and finally be- 
comes, the fruit. The flavour of the fig is exceedingly sweet 
and luscious, so much so as not to be agreeable to many per- 
sons, when tasted for the first time ; but, like most fruits of this 
kind, it becomes a great favourite with all after a short trial, 
and is really one of the most agreeable, wholesome, and nutri- 
tious kinds of food. It has always, indeed, been the favourite 
fruit of warm countries, and the ideal of earthly happiness and 
content, as typified in the Bible, consists in sitting under one’s 
own fig tree. 
Its cultivation was carried to great perfection among the an- 
cient Romans, who had more than twenty varieties in their 
gardens. But the Athenians seem to have prided themselves 
most on their figs, and even made a law forbidding any to be 
exported from Attica. Smuggling, however, seems to have 
been carried on in those days, and a curious little piece of ety- 
mological history is connected with the fig. The informers 
against those who broke this law were called sukophantai , from 
two words in the Greek, meaning the “ discoverers of figs.’’ And 
as their power appears also to have been used for malicious 
purposes, thence arose our word sycophant. The fig was first 
introduced from Italy about 1548, by Cardinal Poole, and to 
this country about 1790, by Wm. Hamilton, Esq. 
Propagation. This tree is very readily increased by cut- 
tings taken off in the month of March, and planted in light soil 
in a hot bed, when they will make very strong plants the same 
season. Or, they may be planted in a shady border in the open 
air, quite early in April, with tolerable success. In either case 
the cuttings should be made eight or ten inches long, of the last 
year’s shoots, with about half an inch of the old, or previous 
year’s wood left at the base of each. 
Soil and culture. The best soil for the fig is one mode- 
rately deep, and neither too moist nor dry, as, in the former 
case, the plant is but too apt to run to coarse wood, and, in the 
latter, to drop its fruit before it is fully ripe. A mellow, calca- 
reous loam, is the best soil in this climate — and marl, or mild 
lime in compost, the most suitable manure. 
As in the middle states this tree is not hardy enough to be al- 
lowed to grow as a standard, it is the policy of the cultivator to 
keep it in a low and shrub-like form, near the ground, that it 
may be easily covered in winter. The great difficulty of this 
mode of training, with us, has been that the coarse and over- 
luxuriant growth of the branches, when kept down, is so great 
as to render the tree unfruitful, or to rob the fruit of its due 
share of nourishment. Happily the system of root-pruring , 
recently found so beneficial with some other trees, is, in this 
climate, most perfectly adapted to the fig. Short jointed wood, 
and only moderate vigour of growth, are well known accom- 
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