351 
FICUS. 
fore planted in great fquare tubs, to be removed into the 
fun in the fummer time, and into the houfe in winter.” 
In his time only three forts were known. 
Mr. Miller informs us, that there are many varieties in 
the warm countries, which have been obtained from feeds, 
and might be increafed, if the inhabitants were careful 
in propagating the feeds of the beft forts. In England 
vve had not more than four or five forts till within a few 
years part ; for as the generality of the Englift: were not 
lovers of this fruit, there were few who troubled them- 
fclves with the culture of it. But fome years pad, fays 
Mr. Profed'or Martyn, I had a large eolleftion of thefe 
trees fent me from Venice, by my honoured friend the 
chevalier Rathgeb, which I planted and preferved to lafte 
of their fruits, feveral of which proved excellent; thefe 
I have preferved and propagated, and thole whofe fruit 
were inferior have been neglected. 
2. Ficus fycomorus, or Egyptian fig-tree or fycomore : 
leaves cordate, roundifli, quite entire, tomentofe under¬ 
neath ; fruits feftile. The Egyptian or Pharaoh’s fig-tree, 
or fycomore, is a large tree, with leaves like thofe of the 
mulberry. The (lent is often fifty feet thick ; and -as it 
fpreads out its boughs very much, it is of great ufe, in a 
fccrching climate, to (hade thofe who travel through the 
deferts. The mummies in Egypt are preferved in coffins 
of this wood, which is of a reddifh colour, light, and very 
proper for this ufe, becatife it does not rot for many ages. 
The fruit is produced from the trunk and larger branches, 
and is (haped like the common fig; it is pierced by an 
infedt (Cynips fycomori) a little before it ripens, in two 
different ways; either the feales which cover the calyx 
wither, and are bent back, as in tIre common fig, for the 
admiffion of the infedf ; or, which is more common in this 
fpecies, a little below the feales on the fide of the invo¬ 
lucre tIre fruit is affeCted with a gangrene, which extends 
itfelf, and frequently occupies the fpace of a finger’s 
breadth ; it withers, the place affeCted becomes black, 
the flefliy fubflance in the middle is corroded for the 
breadth of a quill, and the male blofToms, which are 
neared, appear naked, opening a way for the infedt, which 
makes feveral furrows in the infide of tire fruit, but never 
•touches the frigmas, though it frequently eats the germs. 
The gangrenous part is at firft covered by the blofToms, 
but the hole is by degrees enlarged, of various fizes, in 
different fruits, the margin and Tides being always gan¬ 
grenous, black, hard, and turned inwards. The fruit 
taftes pretty well ; when ripe it is foft, watery, fomewhat 
Tweet, with a very little portion of an aromatic flavour; 
though fiefhy enough, yet but little of it is good, the 
infedfs having eaten much of it. At the end of March 
it buds, and the fruit ripens the beginning of June : the 
inhabitants wound or cut it when it buds, and fay that 
without this precaution it will not bear fruit. We call it, 
in Englifh, fycomore-tree, and mulberry fig-tree. This, 
and not the great maple, is the right fycamore. Native 
of Egypt, of the Levant, and Cochin-china. Cultivated 
by Mr. Miller, in 1736. 
3. Ficus nymphreifolia, or water-lily-leaved fig-tree : 
leaves ovate, cordate, mucronate, quite entire, frnooth, 
glaucous underneath. This rifes with a ftrong, upright, 
woody, Item, twenty feet high, fending out feveral fide 
branches, which have large, oval, thick, ft iff, leaves, as 
big as.thofe of yellow water-lily, waved a little about the 
edge, blunt with a point, hanging down, as it were, pel¬ 
tate, frnooth, whitilh underneath, about fourteen inches 
long, and near a foot broad, having feveral tranfverfe 
veins: the- foot-ftaiks are a fpan long, and more, com- 
preffed, frnooth, and frequently turned next to the 
branches. Native of the Eaft Indies. 
4. Ficus religiofa, or poplar-leaved fig-tree: leaves 
ovate, cordate, cuifpidate, frnooth ; fruits fefiile. This 
is a large tree, with a fhort trunk, and very long fpread- 
ing buughs. Leaves frnooth, of a light green, fix or fe- 
ven inches long, and three inches and a half broad to¬ 
wards the bale, diminishing gradually to the top, where 
they run out into a narrow point, an inch and a half long. 
The fruit comes out on the branches, is fmall, and of 1:0 
value. According to Gaertner, it is the fize of a fmall 
hazel nut; but Linnaeus fays it is the fhape and fize of 
peafe, axillary, folitary, or aggregate. Native of the 
Eaft Indies and Cochin-china. 
5. Ficus benjamins, or oval-leaved fig-tree: leaves 
elliptic, obtufe, frnooth ; fruits acute, fertile. This is a 
middle-fi||ed tree; native of the Eaft Indies. 
6. Ficus Bengalenfis, or Bengal fig-tree : leaves ovate, 
cordate, quite entire, frnooth, blunt, coriaceous; ftem 
arboreous, erefl, flmibby, round, upright, all frnooth, a 
fathom in height; branches like the ftem ; leaves fome- 
v\hat waved, nerved, the fize of the hand, on a femicy- 
lindric petiole, half an inch in length. Native of the 
Eaft Indies ; and cultivated, 1C92, in the royal garden at 
Hamp ton-court. 
7. Ficus pedunculata, or willow-leaved fig-tree : leaves 
ovate-oblong; cordate, quite entire, fharp, frnooth ; fruits 
globular; peduncles in pairs, elongated. Native of South 
America. 
8. Ficus lucida, or fiiining-leaved fig-tree: leaves ovate, 
cordate, quite entire, frnooth, blunt, three-nerved at the 
bafe ; branches upright. Native of the Eaft Indies. 
9. Ficus Indica, or Indian fig-tree : leaves oblong, 
rounded at the bafe, fmootl: and even, quite entire, fome¬ 
what glaucous underneath, imprefted with dots above; 
fruits almoft globular. This vaft tree is entirely frnooth, 
the branches fpreading very wide, bowed down, the lower 
ones rooting, afti-coloured. Leaves acumina e, with a 
blunt point, obfeurely waved, marked witlpparallel nerves, 
paler underneath, a fpan long, on femicylindric afh-co- 
loured petioles, of a finger’s length. Fruits aggregate 
here and there on the branchlets, peduncled, the fize of 
a hazel-nut. It is called by the Englifh banyan-tree; and 
arbor de rayz , that is, tlie rooting-tree, by the Portuguefe ; 
and it propagates itfelf, as Mr. Evelyn obferves, into a 
foreft, by letting a kind of gummy firing fall from its 
branches, which takes root, and tlnis.fpreads a vaft cir¬ 
cuit. This, however, is the cafe with the third, fourth, 
fifth, fixth, and tenth, fpecies, and perhaps others. One 
of thefe growing near Mangee, twenty miles weft of Pat¬ 
na, in Bengal, was in diameter 370 feet: the circum¬ 
ference of the ftiadow at noon was 1116 feet; the circum¬ 
ference of the feveral denis, which were fifty or fixty in 
number, 921 feet. Four miles diftant from Fort St. David, 
in tlie Carnatic, frauds an enormous Ficus Indica, or ban¬ 
yan-tree, computed to cover near 1700 fquare yards, under 
the (hade of which, fays Mr. Ives, at p-i99, ten thoufand 
men might Hand without incommoding themfelves, al¬ 
lowing iix men to a yard fquare ; and feveral people have 
built houfes under the arches, formed by the branches 
bending down, which take root, and become another tree 
united to the firft. “ The arches which thefe different 
flocks make (fays Pennant) are Gothic, and fomewhat 
like the arches in Weftminfter-hall.” The Gentoos are 
almoft as fenfibly hurt, if any one cuts or lops off any of 
the branches, as if he had mutilated or deftroyed a cow, 
which he holds in fo much veneration. Hence another 
fpecies is named by Linnaeus rdigiofa , being facred to the 
idol Villnii, who is faid to have been born under it. 
Strabo mentions this tree, and fays that the branches 
grow horizontally about tw'elve cubits, then taking a di¬ 
rection to the earth, where they root themfelves, and 
when they have attained maturity, continue to propagate 
in the fame manner, till the w'hole becomes like a tent 
fupported by many columns. Native of the Eaft Indies 
and Cochin-china. Cultivated .in 1759, by Mr. Miller. 
For the manner of its cafting down new trunks to takq 
root, fee Plate II. fig. 3, in the article Botany. 
10. Ficus virens, or round-fruited fig-tree: leaves ob¬ 
long, acuminate, quite entire, frnooth and even, narrowed 
and rounded at the bafe. This rifes to the height of 
thirty or forty feet, fending out many flender branches, 
which put out roots. Leaves eight or nine inches long, 
and 
