Fig tree

“ Standing with its feet awash at high tide, the huge fig-tree began life as a parasite, the seed planted by a beak-cleaning bird in a crevice of the bark of its forerunner. In time the host disappeared, embraced and absorbed. Now the tree is a sturdy host. Another fig envelops some of its branches, two umbrella-trees cling stubbornly to its sides, a pandanus palm grows comfortably at the base of a limb, tons of staghorn, bird's-nest, polypodium, and other epiphytal ferns, have licence to flourish, orchids hang decoratively, and several shrubs spring aspiringly among its roots. ”

“ A fig-tree, when its fruit has reached this point of ripeness, is indeed a beautiful sight for those who have been fortunate enough to see it literally covered by the various singing birds that are tempted to rob its branches. ”

“ The leaves of the Almond tree are not beautiful, neither is her shape a thing to boast of. When spring did at last come back to stay, the Almonds were the plainest of all the trees. Their blossoms were like bright candles burned to the socket, that would light no more; their “corruptible crown” of beauty had passed to other heads. No one looked at them, no one pitied them, except the Fig trees, who wondered which had most cause to mourn,—they, who had never had a blossom, or the Almond trees, who had risked theirs and lost them all before the time of blossoms came. ”

“ Thus, upon a lofty mora tree a fig tree will grow, and upon the fig an enormous creeper will fasten itself, its long shoots dangling loosely from the enormous height at which they grow, or drooping in graceful and flower-clad festoons from one tree to another. Such a forest as this is often ankle-deep in water for miles together, and the vegetation is so thick that the only way of passing through the tangled mass of vegetation is to cut a path with the axe. ”

“ The strong love of flowers finds its expression in a number of ways, and it seems extraordinary that a success which is seldom achieved by those who live in town should crown the efforts of one who apparently has but to touch a plant to make it live. A little fig-tree—the most notable of her triumphs, for it, too, was planted and raised within doors—lifts its branches and bears fruit as the central attraction of a group of tropical plants that flourish near the casement of the dining-room window. ”

“ The unfruitful Almond trees were dug up and thrown over the wall,—all [Pg 15] but the two whom their sisters had ransomed with their lives; for beauty has its price in this world and there must be some one to pay it.
When another spring came round, it was the little Fig tree that stood in the bright corner where the splendor of the road lamp shone upon its leaves all night. Its leaves were now as broad as a man’s outspread hand, and its fruit was twice the size it had been the season before. ”

“ Some plant wild fig trees near cultivated fig trees, and there are others who, to remedy the weakness of the productive fig tree of our gardens, attach to the branches unripe figs and so retain the fruit which had already begun to drop and to be lost. What lesson does nature here give us? That we must often borrow, even from those who are strangers to the faith, a certain vigour to show forth good works. ”

“ There should be nothing left but a scar to show that a limb has been cut away. There must be no stump left. The fig tree may require to have its branches thinned out, but it must not be headed back except to correct unsymmetrical growth. In dense trees branches which cross should be removed entirely and in such a way as to give the tree a rounded, dome-like outline, with the lower branches nearly touching the ground. In pruning recently planted trees the object in view is, of course, entirely different, as fruit can not be expected for several years to come. ”

“ The fig tree requires an abundance of air and sunshine to mature its fruit, and it is therefore absolutely necessary that the trees be so arranged that they shall not shade one another. After the distance is decided, the laying out and planting require the same general skill, labor, and methods used in planting other permanent orchards. A few points in planting are peculiar to the fig, however, and require special consideration. ”

“ The older fig trees are usually on the sheltered sides of houses—the fig tree here is on the south side of the house, with its trunk close by the chimney and its roots in underneath the hearth—but of late years several have been planted on the sunny sides of some of the big rocks. ”

“ On the trunk of this great tree may still be seen the marks of stone tomahawks of the primitive inhabitants of the island. There is none now to disturb and plunder the hasty birds.
STEALTHY MURDERERS The fig-tree which aids the BAEA in its object of beautifying the precipice is one of a very numerously represented species, which assumes great variety of form, and produces fruit of varying quality. This particular variety (FICUS CUNNINGHAMII) begins life as a parasite. ”

“ However, countries may be cited where the fig has been cultivated for a century at least, and where no such naturalization has taken place. I am not speaking of Europe north of the Alps, where the tree demands particular care and the fruit ripens with difficulty, even the first crop, but of India for instance, the Southern States of America, Mauritius, and Chili, where, to judge from the silence of compilers of floras, the instances of quasi-wildness are rare. In our own day the fig tree grows wild, or nearly wild, over a vast region of which Syria is about the centre ”

“ Wherefore, then, saith the Lord that the budding of the Fig-Tree shall foretell the end?
Because the Fig-Tree is the symbol of the Divine Woman, as the Vine of the Divine Man.
The Fig is the similitude of the Matrix, containing [82] inward buds, bearing blossoms on its placenta, and bringing forth fruit in darkness. It is the Cup of Life, and its flesh is the seed-ground of new births.
The stems of the Fig-Tree run with milk: her leaves are as human hands, like the leaves of her brother the Vine. ”

“ Among the wilderness of trees may be noticed the victims of the treacherous fig, the dead trunk of the original tree still visible, but enveloped in the interlacing stem of the robber, which has seized it in its cruel embrace, sucked life and marrow out of it, and reared triumphantly its crown of glossy green leaves far above in the bright sunlight. ”

“ And these green figs grow wholly on the wood which is a year old, and not on the new wood." And this kind of fig-tree produces the green fig ripe and sweet, very different from the green fig which we have; and it grows to a much greater size than the genuine fig. ”

“ In Latin myths the plant plays an important part. Held sacred to Bacchus, it was employed in religious ceremonies; and the fig-tree that overshadowed the twin founders of Rome in the wolf’s cave, as an emblem of the future prosperity of the race, testified to the high value set upon the fruit by the nations of antiquity. The tree is now cultivated in all the Mediterranean countries, but the larger portion of our supply of figs comes from Asia Minor, the Spanish Peninsula and the south of France. Those of Asiatic Turkey are considered the best. ”

“ Fig Tree. “It is a very old and important one, and even grown people go to big buildings when the bells ring, and read and learn about my family.”
Her voice was as satisfied, oh, just as satisfied as could be, and she seemed to be quite pleased over something while she was talking. Mrs. Pepper gave her branches a toss, as she crossly exclaimed:
“I don’t see what there is in Fig Trees to study over much! All they have anyhow is queer awkward looking leaves in the spring, then green figs growing right out of the branches, no flowers or anything, then by and by all the leaves dropping off again! ”

“ Fig-trees grow and bear quite well in the neighbourhood of London, and they even thrive and bear in many street-gardens in the City. The fig requires less care in training and pruning than any other tree; it should indeed rarely be touched with the knife, and only the ill placed shoots removed by disbudding. The fruit is produced on the young wood at the extremity of the branches, but it does not ripen till the wood on which it grows is a year old. ”

“ The ancients were well aware of the production of these insects in the wild fig-tree and their transference to the cultivated fig-tree. Sometimes instead of fertilising the trees by hand they contented themselves with planting wild fig-trees near cultivated fig-trees, so that the fertilisation was effected by the wind, which blew the insects from the male to the female trees. ”

“ To prevent the dropping of fruit of the edible fig before maturity, it is an ancient practice among fig growers to hang branches of the wild fig tree, or strings of ripe Caprifigs, in the trees of the fig orchard. The fig wasps will then enter the young edible figs and bring about pollination with the Caprifig pollen. The true Smyrna fig absolutely requires pollination to ripen its fruit. ”

“ Another proverb tells us that “He who has Figs has riches.”——In Sicily, the Fig-tree is looked upon as a tree of ill-omen. It is there thought to be the tree on which Judas hung himself, and never to have thrived well since that occurrance. There is an old superstition that in each leaf of a Fig-tree lurks an evil spirit; and certain blood-thirsty spectres, called Fauni Ficarii, are mentioned in legends.——At Avola, it is popularly believed to be unwise to sleep beneath the shade of a Fig-tree during the warmth of Summer ”

“ The wild fig-tree, which bears a small fruit, resembling that of the cultivated tree in Louisiana, grows here to a vast extent and beauty, having, from its wide-spreading branches, suckers, which hang down and touch the ground, where they take root and grow in size equal to the original trunk,—thus giving to the tree, the appearance of a frame house with supporters and rafters. ”

“ Father.—This, then, you see is a third usefulness the Indian fig-tree can boast, and of which I was not at first aware. You must perceive of what importance these inclosures are; and the rather, as they are made with so little trouble; for, if you plant only one of its leaves in the ground, it immediately takes root, and grows with astonishing rapidity: it is therefore not only a defence against wild beasts, but against enemies in general ”

“ Let me say, however, that it is a fig-tree; not the one that produces the eatable fig, of which you are so very fond, but another species of the same genus—the genus Ficus. Now, of this genus there are a great many species; as many, perhaps, as there are of any other genus of trees. Some of them are only creeping and climbing plants; adhering to rocks and the trunks of other trees, like vines or ivy. Others, like the banyan, are among the largest trees of the forest. They are chiefly confined to tropical countries, or hot regions lying on the borders of the tropics ”

“ But the water would not go uphill; [Pg 7] it ran away down, instead, and the Peach and Plum and Pear trees grew fat with what the Fig trees lacked.
“Courage, little sister!” they called to the fainting young tree by the wall. “The morning sun is strong, but soon the shadow of the wood will reach us. Cover thy face and keep a good heart. When our turn shall come, it will be thy turn too; one of us will not bloom without the others.” ”

“ It is not a very eatable species, and is not cultivated for the sake of food. It is precocious, and becomes ripe when the other figs, still green, have not yet attained their maturity. The tree which produces them—the caper fig-tree—yields two or three crops in the year ”

“ The forests abound with gigantic trees with cylindrical, buttressed, or furrowed stems, while occasionally the traveller comes upon a wonderful fig-tree, whose trunk is itself a forest of stems and aerial roots. Still more rarely are found trees which appear to have begun growing in mid-air, and from the same point send out wide-spreading branches above and a complicated pyramid of roots descending for seventy or eighty feet to the ground below, and so spreading on every side, that one can stand in the very centre with the trunk of the tree immediately overhead. ”

“ The Banian or Indian fig tree, is perhaps the most beautiful and surprising production of nature in the vegetable kingdom. Some of these trees are of an amazing size, and as they are always increasing, they may in some measure be said to be exempt from decay. Every branch proceeding from the trunk throws out its own roots, first in small fibres, at the distance of several yards from the ground. ”

“ For, as the vine is the oft-repeated symbol of spiritual good, so the fig-tree is that of natural good. And this clothing the life with merely external or moral virtues, is correspondentially described in the statement that "they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."
Then "they heard the voice of the Lord going forth in the garden." The voice of the Lord is any inward dictate which emanates from Him. ”

“ In accordance with this plan, he recommends that a fig-tree should be planted near an olive, at a distance sufficiently near to admit of the fig being touched by a branch of the olive when extended to its full length; as supple and pliant a one as possible being selected for the purpose, and due care being taken all the time to render it seasoned by keeping it constantly on the stretch. ”

“ Fig trees are propagated by cuttings, which should be put into pots, and placed in a gentle hotbed. They may be obtained more speedily from layers, which should consist of two or three years old shoots, and these, when rooted, will form plants ready to bear fruit the first or second year after planting. The best soil for a fig border is a friable loam, not too rich, but well drained; a chalky subsoil is congenial to the tree, and, to correct the tendency to over-luxuriance of growth, the roots should be confined within spaces surrounded by a wall enclosing an area of about a square yard. ”