350 
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'made by profopopceia .—Milton, fenfible of this defeat in 
the fubjedt of his poem, brought into it two charadters 
of a fliadowy and fi&itious nature in the perfons of (in and 
death, by which means lie has interwoven in his fable a 
very beautiful allegory. AddiJ'on. 
FICTITIOUSLY, adv. Falfely ; connterfeitly.— 
Thefe pieces are jiClitiovJly fet down, and have no copy in 
nature. Brown. 
ITCULE'A, or Fi'culnea, anciently a town of Latium, 
beyond mount Sacer, at the north of Rome. Cicero had 
a villa there ; and the road that led to the town was called 
Ficulncrtfis , afterwards Nomentana Via. Livy. 
FI'CUS, f. [fome derive it from fxcundns, Lat. others 
front the Greek, <rvk >?, or ; others again from the 
Hebrew, fag.] The Fig-tree ; a genus of the clafs poly- 
gamia, order trioecia, natural order of fcabridse, (urticse, 
Juff'.) The generic characters are—Calyx : common obo- 
vate, very large, flefhy, concave; ciofed with very many 
femilanceolate, Iharp, ferrate, inflex, feales. The inner 
furface is covered with flofcules, the outer of which, or 
thofe which are nearer to the edge of the calyx, are male ; 
thefe are fewer in number : the reft, lower down, are fe¬ 
male, and more numerous. Male, each on its proper 
peduncle. Calyx: perianthium proper three-parted, eredt, 
(bell-fhaped, trifid, Gartner-,) divifions lanceolate, erect, 
equal. Corolla : none. Stamina : filaments three, briflle- 
fliaped, length of the calyx; antherae twin. Piftillum : 
rudiments caducous, intorted. Female, each on its pro¬ 
per peduncle. Calyx : perianthium proper five-parted, 
(bell-fhaped, quinquifid, G .) divifions lanceolate-acumi¬ 
nate, ftraight, nearly equal. Corolla: none. Piftillum: 
germ (half-inferior, G.) oval, the fize of the proper 
perianthium; ftyle fubulate, (briftie-fliaped, G.) inflex, 
coming out from the germ at the fide of the tip ; ftigmas 
two, acuminate, reflex, one fhorler than the other. Peri- 
carpium : none ; calyx oblique, containing in its bofom a 
feed, larger. Seed : Angle, roundifh, comprefled.— LJjen- 
tial Character. Receptacle common turbinate, flefhy, con¬ 
verging, concealing the flofcules, either on the fame or a 
diftindt individual. Male. Calyx, three-parted ; corolla, 
none; (lamina, three. Female: Calyx, five-parted ; co¬ 
rolla, none ; piftillum, one ; feed, one. 
Defcription. Linnaeus tells us, that lie removed this 
genus from the clafs Cryptogamia to Polygamia, on ac¬ 
count of the different ft ru dtp re of the fructification, the 
fpreading umbilicus , navel, or opening of the receptacle 
in fome fpecies, its want of genuine affinity to the plants 
of the clafs Cryptogamia, and by the advice of baron 
Munchaufen, a very acute botanift. Some modern au¬ 
thors have again removed the genus into the clafs Trian- 
dria. There are two treatifes exprefsly on this genus ; 
one in the firft volume of the Amcenitates Academica, in 
1744; and the fecond by Thunberg, in 1786. Figs are 
either trees or (limbs, abounding in a milky juice; the 
branches alternate, the leaves alfo alternate, when young 
inclofed within (beaching, ftipules convoluted into a ter¬ 
minating horn, frequently foon caducous, and the veftiges 
of them remaining ; fruit turbinate or globular, often 
axillary, either folitary or crowded, either feftile or pe- 
duncled, fometimes but feldom in terminating bunches. 
Fruit, according to the defcription of Gasrtner, turbinate, 
umbilicate at the top, flefhy, foft, hollow within. T he 
peri car pjii m is a very (mail berried drupe, or rather utri¬ 
cle, on a Aliform peduncle, covered with the calyx above 
the middle, and terminated by the permanent ftyle ; rind 
flefliy-gelatinous, fubpcllucid, finally drying up ; (hell 
cruftaceous, (lender, brittle, refembling a feed, which is 
of the fame ftiape, namely, ovate, narrowing upwards, 
comprefled like a lens, w.ith an umbilical hole below the 
tip ; the embryo fome what eylindric, hooked, inverted, 
the lobes femicylindric, lying down, bowed. 
Species. 1. Ficus carica, or common fig-tree: leaves 
palinate-fubtrilobate, rugged underneath, fruits fmooth, 
pear-ftiaped, umbilicated. The common fig-tree is, in 
all probability, originally a native of Afia, though it has 
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been introduced into Europe in very early ages; it fel¬ 
dom exceeds two yards in height. The trunk is about 
tlie tliicknefs of the human arm; the wood porous and 
fpongy, the bark afli-coloured, full of chinks, and rugged. 
Branches fmooth, with oblong white dots, eredt or afeend- 
ing, flexuofe, or bent back. Stipules in pairs, feffile, 
ovate, acute, ferruginous, caducous. Leaves annua], (in 
Europe, but within the tropics perennial,) cordate, ovate, 
three or five-lobed, with rounded finufes, ferrate-toothed, 
paler underneath, rugged on both fides, fpreading, the 
fize of the hand, or a fpan in length, Petioles round, 
grooved, about an inch in length. Fruits axillary, foli- 
tary, the fize of a pear, on very fiiort round peduncles. 
Cordus firft remarks the fiow'ers produced within the fruit. 
The fig-tree has the fame name in all the European 
languages, but little varied, In Gzrmdn feigenbaum or 
figenboom in Danifh, figentra ; in Swedifli, fikontrd in 
French, figuier ; in Italian,yfco or fig,0 ; in Spanilli, higuera ; 
in Portuguefe, figueira ; in Ruflian, jinik ; in Polith, figa. 
In Turkifti, it is ingar; in Arabic, tin. Native of Afia, 
Barbary, the fouthern parts of Europe, I.ouifiana, &c. 
The firft figs introduced into England are (Till remaining 
in the archbifhop’s garden at Lambeth. They are of the 
white Marfeilles kind, and (Till bear delicious fruit. They 
cover a furface fifty feet in height, and forty in breadth. 
The circumference of the trunk of the font hern 111 oft is 
twenty-eight inches, of the other twenty-one. On the 
fouth fide of the building is another tree of the fame 
age; its circumference at the bottom twenty-eight inches. 
Tradition fays, they were planted by cardinal Pole, and it 
is very provable; for it is generally allowed that fig-trees 
were brought into England in the reign of Henry VIII. 
and it feems likely that the cardinal, who bad long refided 
in Ttaly, fliould be fond of cultivating thofe fruits to 
which he had been there accuftomed. To the objection 
arifing from their great age, it may be anfyvered, that we 
do not well know how long a fig-tree will flouriftn, if pro¬ 
perly cultivated. There is alfo a concurrent tradition of 
an older tree, and inftances of two very ancient ones, the 
times of whofe plantation is w'ell afeertained. 1. At 
Mitcham, in the garden of the manor-honfe, formerly 
the private eftate of archbiftiop Crainner, and now belong-, 
ing to one of his defeendants. It is likewife of the white: 
fort, and is confidently aflerted to have been planted by 
Cranmer. Its branches are very low, but its liem, which 
meafures thirty inches, in girt, has every mark of great 
age. 2. In the dean’s garden at Winchefter, there was, 
in thc.ye.ir 1757, a very ancient fig-tree, whofe fruit was 
of the I mall red fort. It was inclofed in a wooden frame, 
with a glafs door, and two windows on each fide of it for 
the admiffion of fun and air. The frame protected it from 
wind and rain. On the ftone-wali to which the tree was 
nailed there-was a plaftering, and feveral inferiptions, one 
of which mentioned, that in the year 1623 king James I. 
“ tafted of the fruit of this tree with great pleafure.” It 
has been buffered to perifii for want of neceffary repairs 
to the frame-work. 3. At Oxford, in the garden of 
the regius profeftfor of Hebrew, is a fig-tree brought from 
the euft, and planted by Dr. Pocock, in the year 1648. 
We are informed, (November 18, 1792,) by the learned 
Dr. John Sibthorp, late regius profelfor of botany at Ox¬ 
ford, that it bears the marks .of great age ; that the trunk 
is perforated by infedts, and damaged by time and wea¬ 
ther; but that the branches of the ne.w wood were clean, 
made vigorous (hoots, and produced a number of fmall 
figs, which were touched by the froft, and were then 
falling off. The fruit is not, as Grofe aflerts, black, but 
white. We learn alfo front' Turner’s Herbal, that the 
fig was cultivated here in 1562. Gerarde fays, in 1597, 
“ that the fruit never 'Cometh to kindly maturity with 
11s, except the tree be planted under an hot wall, where¬ 
to neither north nor north-eaft winds can come.” Parkin- 
foil alfo, in 1629, fays, that “ if you plant it not againft 
a brick wall, or the wall of an hoiife, it will not ripen fo 
kindly ; that the dwarf fig is more tender, and is there- 
