FIC 
FIC 
FICTION of law is allowed of in several 
eases : but it roust be framed according to 
the rules of law ; and there ought to be 
equity and possibility in every legal fiction. 
Fictions were invented to avoid inconveni- 
ence ; and it is a maxim invariably ob- 
served, that no fiction shall extend to work 
an injury ; its proper operation being to 
prevent a mischief, or remedy an inconve- 
nience, that might result from the general 
rule of law. 
FICUS, in botany, English fig-tree, a 
genus of the Polygamia Trioecia class and 
order. Natural order of Scabridas. Urtic®, 
Jussieu. Essential character : receptacle 
common, turbinate, fleshy, converging, con- 
cealing the floscules, either on the same or 
a distinct individual: male calyx three- 
parted ; corolla none ; stamens three : fe- 
male calyx five-parted ; corolla none ; pis- 
til one; seed one. There are fifty-six 
species. 
The fig is a striking instance of that con- 
trivance which nature occasionally employs 
for the continuation of her species. We 
were for a long time unacquainted with the 
manner in which these plants were propa- 
gated : in other kinds it is the flower which 
contains the embryo of the fruit ; in this, on 
the contrary, it is the fruit which incloses 
and conceals the flower. The mode in 
which the fig-trees are made to produce 
their fruit, is called caprification. Among 
the several species of this genus which have 
been enumerated by botanists, the common 
fig is by far the most useful, and is cul- 
tivated in many parts of Europe for the ex- 
cellence of its fruit. The wild as well as 
the cultivated kind is supposed to have 
been originally brought from Asia, from 
whence they have been spread over the 
southern parts of Europe, and are now to 
be met with in Languedoc, in Provence, in 
Spain, in Italy, &c. not to mention those of 
England, which are merely raised for the 
table, and not cultivated, like those abroad, 
for commercial purposes. 
Where the climate is congenial to their 
nature, figs seem to thrive in almost any 
soil ; but Duhamel observes, that they 
produce the most succulent fruit when 
growing among the rocks. They require 
a certain degree of heat : for although this 
gentleman saw figs of a monstrous size at 
Brest, yet they rarely became perfectly 
ripe for want of the necessary warmtli.'The 
trees are generally raised from slips or 
layers, which readily strike root ; and the 
manner which is often practised to effect 
this is simple enough, though rather singu- 
lar. When it is proposed to propagate the 
plant by layers, a branch of the tree is made 
to pass through a tin funnel, or a wicker 
basket, filled with earth, into which the 
branch will soon shoot several fibres ; it 
should then be cut asunder below the 
basket, which should afterwards be placed 
in the earth. When it is desired to raise 
fig-trees that will bear fruit the next year, 
the finest branches of an old tree are laid in 
the earth, and one of a moderate size is 
caused to pass through a box, after being 
stripped of its bark for about a finger’s 
breadth between two knots. The part so 
stripped is then placed about four fingers’ 
breadth above the bottom of the box, and 
covered with earth. In due time the 
branch will shoot out several roots from the 
wounded part, after which it is separated 
from the stem by cutting it off below the 
box. 
Several of the cultivated species, ac- 
cording to Duhamel, require only the ordi- 
nary attention paid to fruit-trees to make 
them ripen their fruit ; but in the Archipe- 
lago, and in Malta, there are figs, both wild 
and domestic, that require a very singular 
mode of treatment to make them bring 
their fruit to perfection ; the assistance we 
here allude to is named caprification, and is 
a phenomenon highly deserving our atten- 
tion. Only two kinds of figs are cultivated 
in the Archipelago, the domestic and the 
wild; from the former they gather that 
fruit which can only be brought to perfec- 
tion by the assistance of the latter, or wild 
fig, which has been named caprificus, and in 
the country ornos. This tree bears succes- 
sively, in the same year, three sorts of fruit, 
to which the natives of the Archipelago 
have given different names. The first fruit, 
which they name fornites, are the autumnal 
figs ; they appear in August, and fall in 
September and October. The second figs, 
called cratitires, are the winter figs, and re- 
main on the trees from September till May ; 
then come the third kind, or spring figs, 
known in the country by the name of orni. 
None of these fruits ripen, but they have a 
sleek even skin, of a deep green colour, and 
contain in their dry and mealy inside several 
male and female flowers, placed upon dis- 
tinct footstalks, the former above the. latter. 
In the first figs, or fornites, are bred small 
worms, which change to a species of cynips, 
peculiar to these trees. In October and 
November, these insects of themselves 
make a puncture into the second fruit, after 
