Of the Generation of the Fig within the Fruit, with other Curiofities relating to the Fig-Tree, in a Letter to J. C. Efq;

SIR,

THOE

HE laft Time I faw you I remember our Converfation was bent upon the Cultivation of the Fig-Tree, a Subject which has been very rarely touch'd upon by Authors, and as rarely look'd into by our Gardeners ; for Figs, however excellent they are, have not yet fo thoroughly gain'd upon the English Palate as to be generally admired.

The Reafon perhaps may be, because only one or two of the moft indifferent Sorts has been in common with us; or elfe that where some of the better Kinds have been planted, the want of Skill in their Management may have either render'd them barren, or made them bring their young Fruit at fuch Seasons when our Climate could not ripen them: But that every one who are yet ignorant of the Excellence of Figs may have it in their Power to be as much regaled with them as

thofe

thofe Gentlemen who have eaten them Abroad, I fhall give you my Thoughts of a Figury or Fig Plantation in this publick Man

ner.

To begin with the Fruit it felf; it has been fuppofed generally to bring no Bloffom, and it has raifed Wonder in many ingenious Men: Neither the Ancients or Moderns have accounted for this Phænomenon, till Monfieur Jeoffroy, a curious Phyfician at Paris, took it in hand, and his Undertaking has fhewn him to be no lefs curious in his Enquiry than happy in his Judg

ment.

Upon the Foot of the Discovery of the Generation of Plants, he has, with a great deal of good Reafon, confulted the Nature of the Fig; he has examin'd the Fruit at different Seafons, and at different Stages of Growth, 'till at length he discover'd the Clue to that dark Paffage in Nature, and has unravel'd the Mystery to us.

The Fig Fruit, he obferves, is not only a Neft of little Fruit difpofed withinside of the Skin, but every Seed or Fruit therein has all its Female Parts of Generation, as much as if it were a Capital Flower; and every one of these is fo placed that the Hollow in the Center of the Fruit is large enough to permit every one to receive the Farina fæcundans, which may be flung upon them by the Apices or Male Parts which lie in the upper Part of the Fruit; and he is yet fo exact to mark us out thofe Parts which do the Office of Petals or Flower-Leaves above

the Apices to preferve them from the Wea

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ther. This Gentleman has join'd a very accurate Cutt of all the Parts of this Fruit, done with a Microfcope, at the End of a Memoir he deliver'd at the Royal Academy of Paris, which was publish'd about four Years ago.

The Objections which had been made to me by fome People, upon Mr. Jeoffroy's Obfervations, are trifling; for as they fay they obferv'd the Fruit only when it was ripe for the Table, they could not then certainly find the Aices he mentions; for 'tis a Thought as abfurd as for a Painter to paint every fort of Tree or Herb with the Flower or Fruit growing upon it at the fame Time. This is no more natural than what I have obferv'd in fome Pictures well painted, where the Fruits or Flowers of the four Seafons have been jumbled together.

In the prefent Cafe we must consider, that every one of the little Seeds in the Fig is a diftinct Fruit, and, as has been obferv'd, has Parts common and natural to other Fruits; if the Male Parts, or fuch as give them the impregnating Duft, are a little remote from them, this is no more, nor fo much as we may obferve in many other Cafes; and when a Fruit is full ripe, it would be a Jeft to look for the Bloffom.

The Oak has its Katkins or Juli remote from the Fruit Buds, the Chefnut the fame, the Willow the fame; the Afpin, the Hazle, the Gourd, the Melon, the Cucumber, and many others have the Male Parts of their Bloffoms fituate at the fame Distance from

the

the Female or Fruit-bearing Parts or Bloffoms, tho' many other Fruit-bearing Plants have them conftantly together, or in one fingle Bloffom. But as the Fig has its Generation Parts enclofed, fo the Strawberry has all its little Fibres open and expofed to the Air: Every little Seed, which is in effect a Fruit, has its Male Parts to impregnate it, and when once that Work is compleated, and the Dufty Parts have done their Office, they decay and fall off, and the Fruit remains in a right State of Growth for ripening.

many Refpects, of Katkins are not fo

The Mulberry is, in the fame Kind, but the near to the Female Parts of the Bloffoms as the Apices of the Strawberry; the Mulberry is not one Fruit, but a Bunch of Fruit, for every Knot, as I may call it, of the Mulberry, is only a Part of the Fruit, and that is furely influenced by the Farina of the Katkins. Now the Bufinefs of Impregnation is no lefs poffible within the Cafe of the Fig Fruit, than upon the Fruits of the Strawberry or Mulberry. But to leave that Point, let us confider, that there are not lefs than forty Kinds of Figs in Europe, which are in their Turns counted valuable, and many of them are fo forward naturally in ripening, or may be made fo by Culture, that it is poffible to bring a great many Sorts of them to Perfection with us in England.

The Way of Planting them is early in the Spring, without letting them be long out of the Ground, for their Roots foon dry, and

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then

then the Parts languifh, although the drieft rubbish Ground is the moft proper for them, or downright Gravel, where this fort of Fruit always does beft. When I have a Mind to propagate a Fig, I draw a young Branch through a Pot, as I do the young Shoots of the Vines, and cut them off when a Summer is paft, and from the Pots tranfplant them with the Earth about their Roots in Places agreeable to their Constitution; thofe which come from the hotter Climates, in the warmest Parts of the Garden, and the reft in Proportion to the Climates they come from; for Vegetables must have their own Way, if we expect them to answer our Defigns, as well as Animals, or else we have no Profit from either.

The forward forts of Figs may be planted in the Natural Ground, and being left at Li berty will bear well; but the late forts must be forced, by nailing against Walls, to gain us any Fruit at all; and in this laft Cafe efpecially, the Method of Pruning should be confider'd, and I know not any so agreeable to Reason as what I have obferv'd at Mr. Greening's, Nurfery-Man at Brentford, whofe great Curiofity leads him, at any reasonable Expence, to dive into the Secrets of Nature. About the End of July he tops the Branches of his Fig Trees, and thereby not only prevents the Autumn Fruit coming forward against the Winter Seafon, but prepares his Trees to make good Shoots in the Spring, which bring their Summer Fruit with them. This, Sir, is what my Time will permit me to give you concerning Figs,

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