8 
No. 2. 
Ficus rubiginosa, Desf. 
The Rusty Fig. 
(Natural Order URTICACEvE.) 
Botanical description.— Genus, Ficus, Linn. 
Flowers. —Unisexual, minute, enclosed in a hollow globular ovoid or pear-shaped receptacle called 
a fig or syncEcium; the minute orifice enclosed by bracts turned inwards, or the first rows 
erect outwards. 
Male flowers. —Usually near the mouth of the receptacle, very rarely in separate receptacles, and 
often very few. 
Perianth. —Of three to six lobes or segments, imbricate in the bud, rarely reduced to a single one. 
Stamens .—One, two, or rarely more, opposite the perianth segments; anthers two-celled or the 
cells confluent at the apex. 
Female perianth. —Usually with narrower segments than the male, and very much reduced or 
almost none. 
Styles.- —Usually lateral, at least after the growth of the ovary, filiform with a terminal peltate, 
oblique or elongated and with unilateral stigma, sometimes unequally two-branched in 
species not Australian. 
Ovule. —Pendulous or laterally attached near the top. 
Fruiting receptacle. —Usually enlarged, but remaining closed, the small seed-like nuts surrounded 
by the membraneous or succulent persistent perianth. 
Embryo. —Curved in a fleshy albumen, usually rather scanty. Trees or shrubs with the juice 
usually milky. 
Leaves. —Alternate or opposite, entire or lobed, penniveined, and usually more or less distinctly 
three-nerved at the base. 
Stipules. —Usually very deciduous, convolute on the young buds. 
Receptacles. —Usually in pairs or solitary by the abortion of one of each pair, either axillary or on 
the old wood, and then often forming clusters or racemes on short leafless branchlets. 
Bracts. —Usually three, often small and scale-like, either at the base of the receptacle or along 
the pedicel below it. Bracts within the receptacle subtending the flowers usually very 
numerous, varying with the perianth in consistence and colour, those near the orifice of the 
receptacle usually rather larger, without flowers, and closing the orifice, the outermost rows 
sometimes exserted and erect, but usually horizontal and inflexed, those subtending the 
flowers sometimes very minute or replaced by hairs or sefoe or obsolete. 
Male flowers. —Usually fewer than the females, and in the upper part of the receptacle, sometimes 
numerous and intermixed with the females or in separate receptacles. (B.F1., vi. 160.) 
