FICUS, the FIG-TREE: A genus of the trioclea order, belonging to the polygamia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 53d order, Scabridae. The receptacle is common, turbinated, carnos, and connivent; inclosing the florets either in the same or in a distinct one. The male calyx is tripartite; no corolla; three stamens: The female calyx is quinquepartite; no corolla; one pistil; and one seed.—There are ten species, of which the following are the most remarkable.
1. The Carica, or common Fig, with an upright stem branching 15 or 20 feet high, and garnished with large palmated or hand-shaped leaves. Of this there are a number of varieties; as the common fig, a large, oblong, dark purplish blue fruit, which ripens in August either on standards or walls, and the tree carries a great quantity of fruit.—The brown or chestnut fig; a large, globular, chestnut-coloured fruit, having a purplish delicious pulp, ripening in July and August.—The black Ichia fig; a middle-sized, shortish, flat-crowned, blackish fruit, having a bright pulp; ripening in the middle of August.—The green Ichia fig; a large, oblong, globular headed, greenish fruit, slightly stained by the pulp to a reddish-brown colour; ripens in the end of August.—The brown Ichia fig; a small, pyramidal, brownish-yellow fruit, having a purplish very rich pulp; ripening in August and September.—The Malta fig; a small flat-topped brown fruit, ripening in the middle of August or beginning of September.—The round brown Naples fig; a globular, middle-sized, light-brown fruit, and brownish pulp; ripe in the end of August.—The long, brown, Naples fig; a long dark-brown fruit, having a reddish pulp; ripe in September.—The great blue fig; a large blue fruit, having a fine red pulp.—The black Genoa fig; a large, pear-shaped, black-coloured fruit, with a bright red pulp; ripe in August.
2. The Sycamorus, or Sycamore of scripture. According to Mr Hasselquist, this is a huge tree, the stem being often 50 feet round. The fruit is pierced in a remarkable manner by an insect. There is an opening made in the calyx near the time the fruit ripens, which is occasioned in two different ways. 1. When the squamæ, which cover the calyx, wither and are bent back; which, however, is more common to the carica than the sycamore. 2. A little below the scales, on the side of the flower-cup, there appears a spot before the fruit is ripe: the fruit in this place is affected with a gangrene which extends on every side, and frequently occupies a finger's-breadth. It withers; the place affected becomes black; the fleshy substance in the middle of the calyx, for the breadth of a quill, is corroded; and the male blossoms, which are nearest to the bare side, appear naked, opening a way for the insect, which makes several furrows in the inside of the fruit, but never touches the stigmata, though it frequently eats the germin. The wounded or gangrenous part is at first covered or shut up by the blossoms; but the hole is by degrees opened and enlarged of various sizes in the different fruits; the margin and sides being always gangrenous, black, hard, and turned inwardly. The same gangrenous appearance is also found
Fig. found near the squame, after the insect has made a hole in that place. The tree is very common in the plains and fields of Lower Egypt. It buds in the latter end of March, and the fruit ripens in the beginning of June. It is wounded or cut by the inhabitants at the time it buds; for without this precaution, they say it would not bear fruit.
3. The Religiosa, or Banian-tree, is a native of several parts of the East Indies. It hath a woody stem, branching to a great height and vast extent, with heart-shaped entire leaves ending in acute points. Of this tree the following lines of Milton contain a description equally beautiful and just:
There soon they chose
The fig tree; not that tree for fruit renown'd,
But such as, at this day to Indians known
In Malacca or Decan, spreads her arms,
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
The banded twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade,
High over arch'd, and echoing walks between:
There oft the Indian herdsmen, shunning heat,
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade.