FICUS, in botany, English a genus of the Polygamia Trioecia class and order. Natural order of Scabridx. Urticie, Jussieu. Essential character: re ceptacle common, turbinate, fleshy, con verging, concealing the floscules, either on the same or a distinct individual : male calyx corolla none; stamens three: female calyx five-parted ; corolla none ; pistil one ; seed one. There are fifty-six species.
The fig is a striking instance of that contrivance which nature occasionally employs for the continuation of her spe cies. We were for a long time unac quainted with the manner in which these plants were propagated : in other kinds it is the flower which contains the em bryo of the fruit. In this, on the contrary, it is the fruit which encloses and con ceals the flower. The mode in which the fig-trees are made to produce their fruit is called caprification. Among the several species of this genus which have been enumerated by botanists, the com mon fig is by far the most useful, and is cultivated in many parts of Europe for the excellence of its fruit. The wild as well as the cultivated kind is supposed to have been originally brought from Asia, from whence they have been spread over the southern parts of Europe, and are now to be met with in Languedoc, in Pro vence, in Spain, in Italy, &c. not to men tion those of England, which are mere ly raised for the table, and not cultiva ted, like those abroad, for commercial purposes.
Where the climate is congenial to their nature, figs seem to thrive in almost any soil : hut Duhamel observes, that they produce the most succulent fruit when growing among the rocks. They require a certain degree of heat : for al though this gentleman saw figs of a mon strous size at Brest, yet they rarely be came perfectly ripe, for want of the neces sary warmth. The trees are generally raised from slips or layers, which readily strike root; and the manner which is often practised to effect this is simple enough, though rather singular. When it is proposed to propagate the plant by layers, a branch of the tree is made to pass through a tin funnel, or a wicker basket, filled with earth, into which the branch will soon shoot several fibres ; it should then be cut asunder, below the basket, which should afterwards be pla ced in the earth. When it is desired to raise fig-trees that will bear fruit the next year, the finest branches of an old tree are laid in the earth, and one of a mode rate size is caused to pass through a box, after being stripped of its bark for about a finger's breadth between two knots. The part so stripped is then placed about four fingers' breadth above the bottom of the box, and covered with earth. In due time the branch will shoot out several roots from the wounded part, after which it is separated from the stem by cutting it off below the box.
Several of the cultivated species, ac cording to Duhamel, require only the or dinary attention paid to fruit-trees to make them ripen their fruit ; but in the Archipelago, and in Malta, there are figs, both wild and domestic, that require a very singular mode of treatment to make them bring their fruit to perfection ; the assistance we here allude to is named ca prification, and is a phenomenon highly deserving our attention. Only two kinds of figs are cultivated in the Archipelago, the domestic and the wild ; from the FOrmer they gather that fruit which can only be brought to perfection by the as sistance of the latter, or wild fig, which has been named caprificus, and in the country, ornos. This tree bears succes
sively, in the same year, three sorts of fruit, to which the natives of the Archipe lago have given differen_ names. The first fruit, which they name fornites, are the autumnal figs ; they appear in August, and fall in September and October. The second figs, called cratitires, are the win ter figs, and remain on the trees from Sep tember till May ; then come the third kind, or spring figs, known in the coun try by the name of orni. None of these fruits ripen, but they have a sleek even skin, of a deep green colour, and contain in their dry and mealy inside several male and fernale flowers, placed upon distinct footstalks, the former above the latter. In the first figs, or fornites, are bred small worms, which change to a species of cy nips, peculiar to these trees. In October and November, these insects of them selves make a puncture into the second fruit, after which the autumnal figs fhll ; but the winter fruit, or cratitires, remain, as we have observed, till May, and en close the eggs deposited by the gnats when they pricked them. in May, the third sort of fruit, called orni, begin to be produced by the wild fig-trees. This is much bigger than the other two ; and when it grows to a certain size, and its bud begins to open, it is pricked in that part by the cynips of the winter figs, which are strong enough to go from one fruit to another to deposit their eggs. It sometimes happens that the insects of the cratitires are slow to come forth in cer tain parts, while the orni in those very parts are ready to receive them. In this case the husbandman is obliged to look for the cratitires in another part, and fix them at the ends of the branches of those fig-trees whose orni are fit to be pricked by the insects. If they miss the opportu nity, the orni fall, and the insects from the winter figs fly away. None but those who are well acquainted with the culture know the critical moment of doing this; and in order to know it, their eye is per petually fixed on the bud of the fig; for that part not only indicates the time that the insects are to issue forth, but also when the fig is to be successfully prick ed : if' the bud is too close, the fly cannot deposit its eggs ; if, on the contrary, it is too open, the fruit falls to the ground. None of the wild figs are good to eat; their chief use is to assist in rineninz the domestic kind, and the manner in which this is effected is as follows : during the months of June and July, the peasants take the orni at the time their insects are ready to break out, and carry them to the garden fig-trees ; if they miss the proper time, the orni fall, and the fruit of the domestic fig will in consequence prove barren, and fall also. The natives are so well acquainted with these pre cious moments, that, every morning, in making their inspection, they only trans fer to their garden fig-trees such orni as are well conditioned, otherwise they lose their crop. In this case, however, they have one remedy, which is to strew over the garden fig-trees another plant, in whose fruit there is also a species of in sect, which, in some measure, answers the purpose. The countrymen so well understand how to manage their orni, that the flies which proceed from theta ripen their domestic figs in the space of forty days.