458 
XCI. URTICACEJE 
\ 
sometimes united, thin and colourless, or sometimes opaque and 
red or brown ; stamens usually one, sometimes two, rarely three, 
filaments short, rarely long, often united when more than one. 
Fertile female flowers : perianth usually as in the male, often very 
minute ; ovary ovoid, style distinct, usually lateral, stigma 
various ; ripe achenes seed-like, pale yellow. Gall-flowers more 
or less resembling the fertile female, but the style and stigma are 
rudimentary, and the ovary is empty, or contains the egg or pupa 
of an insect, never an ovule or seed. 
The figs of the Banyan, F. bengalensis, of the Pipal, F. 
religiosa, and of F. Bumphii, contain all three kinds of flowers ; 
in the other species the male and the gall-flowers are borne in 
one set of figs, and the fertile female in another set, the figs being 
externally quite similar. We thus see one set of figs containing 
barren female flowers associated with a number of pollen-produc- 
ing males, while a different set contains only fertile female flowers, 
and yet these females all produce fertile seeds. In what manner 
the pollen is conveyed from the male flowers into the almost com- 
pletely closed figs containing the female flowers has not yet been 
satisfactorily explained. That the flowers of the common edible fig, 
F. Garica, are unisexual was known to Linnaeus, and had, indeed, 
in a vague way, been suspected since the time of Aristotle, but it 
is only within recent years that the existence and nature of gall- 
flowers have been demonstrated. Further details will be found in 
King’s Monograph of the Indo-Malayan and Chinese Figs , pub- 
lished in the Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden , Calcutta , vol. i. 
Most of the species have fruits which are eaten by birds, and their seeds thus 
become widely disseminated. 
The India-rubber tree, F. elastica , wild in the Sikkim Himalaya and east- 
ward, is sometimes planted in gardens in the lower hills. In its native country 
it is a large tree towering above the surrounding forest. Leaves leathery, 
shining, entire, oblong, 3-12 in., abruptly pointed ; nerves closely parallel, 
stipules very large. 
Figs borne on ordinary leafy branches, axillary. 1 
Leaves entire. 
Leaf-stalks more than 2 in. 
Tail -like tip of leaf about £ of its total length . 2. F. Bumphii. 
Tail-like tip of leaf about J of its total length . 3. F. religiosa. 
Leaf-stalks less than 1 in. 
A climbing or. creeping shrub . . . .7 . F. foveolata. 
Erect shrubs or trees. 
Leaves obtuse . . . . . 1. F. bengalensis. 
Leaves long-pointed . . . 9. F. nemoralis. 
Leaves toothed, at least in the upper half. 
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 4-7 in. ; stalks i in. . . 4. F. clavata. 
Leaves broadly ovate or lobed, 2-5 in. ; stalks 
1-2 in. . . . . . . . . 8. F. palmata. 
Figs borne on special leafless branches. 1 
Leaves opposite . . . . . . . 5. F. hispida. 
1 F. hispida generally bears its figs on special leafless branches, but sometimes 
in axillary pairs on ordinary branches ; it may always be known by its opposite 
leaves. 
