Natural History. -^Botany. ^05 
of a large family. Although the orchard does not exceed three 
quarters of an acre, there are upwards of 100 trees that are 
about the size of large apple-trees, the branches extending about 
twenty feet each way from the trunk. Mr Loud, the proprie- 
tor of this little figgery, mentions, that he gathers about a 
hundred dozen per day during the season, and that he averages 
tlie trees to produce him about twenty dozen each. The fruity 
which is partly of the white and partly of the purple variety, 
ripens in August, September, and October ; a time of the year 
when the neighbouring watering-places are frequented by fa- 
shionable company, that insures a ready sale for this agreeable 
fruit at good prices. — The second crop has occasionally ripened ; 
the fruit, although smaller,, is exceedingly sweetr^Two of the 
trees are now about seventy-five years old, having been planted 
in the year 1745, by John Long, who raised them from some 
old ones in an adjoining garden, near the ruins of the palace of 
Thomas-a-Becket in that town, who, tradition says, brought 
these trees from Italy and planted them himself. The soil of 
the garden is a deep black loam on chalk. The trees are but 
seldom and sparingly pruned. When they grow too luxuriant- 
ly, it has been found better to destroy a part of their roots, and 
to fill up the space with stones or broken bricks, than to prune 
the branches too much.”— The effect of the juice or exudation of 
the papa w- tree of the West Indies in intenerating poultry or 
butchers-meat, is well known. From Mr Phillips we learn that 
the fig-tree possesses the same quality. It is a curious fact,” 
he says, “ that fresh-killed venison, or any other animal food, 
being hung up in a fig-tree, when in leaf, for a single night, 
will become as tender and as ready for dressing, as if kept for 
many days or weeks in the common manner. A gentleman who 
lately made the experiment assured me, that a recent haunch of 
venison was hung up in a fig-tree at 10 o’clock at night, and 
was removed before sunrise in the morning, when it was found 
in a perfect state for cooking ; and he adds, that in a few houra 
it would have been in a state of putrefaction,” p. 169. 
19. Remains of Trees in the Orkney Islands . — It has long 
been known, that some remains of roots and trunks of trees could 
be traced, at ebb tide, in a bay at Otters wick in Sanday, and in 
a similar bay at Deerness, in the south-east quarter of Pomona or 
