141. Miller introduced several new varieties of the fig from Venice : he enumerates 14 sorts as deserving of cultivation in this country ; but of these little more than one-half are now in repute. Those most esteemed are the following : The Brown Ischia is a very large globular fruit, of a chestnut colour on the Outside, and purple within ; pulp sweet and of good flavour. It ripens by the middle of August, and the tree seldom fails to afford a et-op.
The Black Ischia, also called Blue Ischia, is a very good sort. The fruit is short, of nlIdling size, a little flatted at the crown ; when fully ripe, he skin is dark purple or almost black, and the inside of a deep red : the pulp very high flavoured. The tree is a good bearer, and the fruit is ready early in September.
The Black Genoa is a long-shaped fruit ; the skin of a dark purple, almost black, with a purplish bloom over it ; the inside bright red; the pulp high flavoured. It ripens from the middle to the end of August, and the tree is a good bearer.
The White Genoa is a large, almost globular fruit, of good flavour ; the skin thin, of a yellowish colour when ripe, and light red within. The tree is considered as rather a shy bearer.
The Small Early 'Age has a sweet pulp, but without much flavour. It ripens emly, and is therefore well suited to our climate : indeed it seldom fails to produce a crop.
The Malta jig is a small brown fruit ; the pulp sweet, and well flavoured. When permitted to hang on the tree till it be shrivelled, it forms a tine sweetmeat.
The Murrey fig, or brownish-red Naples fig, is a large globular shaped fruit, of pretty good flavour ; it is distin guished by the murrey-coloured skin. It ripens in Sep tember.
The Common Blue or purple fig, is of an oblong shape ; the tree is a copious bearer ; and the fruit ripens in the end of August.
The Brunswick, or Madonna, is a long pyramidal fig ; the skin brown, the pulp with little flavour. Like the com mon blue, it is an early kind, and in this respect suited to Britain.
The Brown Italian is a small roundish fig, of high fla vour ; the skin becoming of a brown colour when the fruit is ripe ; the inside red. The tree is a great bearer.
The Black Italian fig is likewise small and roundish ; the pulp high flavoured, and of a dark red colour ; the skin purple. The tree bears freely.
142. In this country, fig-trees require good walls, with south-east, south, or south-west aspects, and they occupy a good deal of space. It is proper, therefore, to select only such kinds as are likely to be productive, chielly the four first enumerated. The trees likewise require careful ma nagement. Britain is certainly not the country for fig-trees; yet, with due attention, fresh figs matured on the open walls may grace the dessert from the middle of August to the end of October ; and, by means of a fig-house, or even of dwarf fig-trees planted in front of a vinery, the season may be prolonged till December. It may here be remarked,
that the fig, in a green or fresh state, being a scarce fruit in this country, is often cut into longitudinal slices at the dessert : a good deal of the flavour is thus lost. Abroad, the person who eats a fig holds it by the small end, and making a circular cut at the large end, peels down the thick skin of the fruit in flakes, the solt interior part form ing only a single bonne bouche.
A friable loamy soil is best for fig-trees. French writers recommend light and poor soil, even sandy and gravelly ; but in such situations in this country, the tree does not suc ceed ; and in any very dry soil the fruit is apt to fall off. If, however, the soil be otherwise good, the recurrence of this last inconvenience may in general be prevented by wa tering and mulching. A free exposure to air and sun is in dispensable to the perfection of the fruit.
143. In the public nurseries, fig-trees are often propa gated by suckers, and sometimes by cuttings. The cut tings are taken off in autumn, sunk in the ground, and pro tected with old bark and haulm during winter. Neither cuttings nor suckers form nearly so good trees as those procured by layers, provided the layers be formed of bear ing branches. Indeed a single plant thus procured, by lay ering, from a tree in a full bearing state, and from the bear ing wood of such a tree, is worth many others.
In general, a young fig-tree is at first trained with three branches, nearly upright, this direction encouraging their rapid growth. If horizontal training be adopted, the two outer branches are afterward laid down horizontally, and from these, upright branches are suffered to rise, at the dis tance of a foot or sixteen inches from each other. From the central shoot, other shoots spring, and these are suc cessively laid in horizontally, at the distance, perhaps, of two feet from each other. The mode of training, however, generally adopted in this country, and approved by the best gardeners, is the fan-shape ; keeping the outer branches nearly horizontal, so as to allow ample space for laying in the central ones. In sonic instances they arc trained in the Dutch mode, with only two low horizontals, and upright shoots from these. In a few places in England, fig-trees are trained to espalier-rails. Sometimes these trees are untied, and during the severity of winter, the branches are laid close to the ground in bundles, and well covered with straw or haulm, over which some earth is heaped. Another method of protecting them, employed both in England and France, is the erecting of two screens of reeds, one on each side of the rail.