CHAP. C.

c/rtica'ce®. -Fi'cus.

1367

vigour, when Dr. Neill, and the other members of the deputation of theCaledonian Horticultural Society, inspected the archiepiscopal gardens.On our visiting the grounds, however, in September, 1836, we found that thetrees had been destroyed some years before, when the palace was undergoingrepair; and that the only traces left of them were some young plants raisedfrom cuttings, which are now growing in the archbishop’s kitchen-garden.At Mitcham, in the garden of the Manor House, formerly the private estate ofArchbishop Cranmer , there was, in Miller’s time, the remains of a white figtree, confidently asserted to have been planted by Cranmer himself; but it wasdestroyed in 1790. Its stem, some years before, was 10 in. in diameter; butits branches were very low and weak. In the Dean’s garden at Winchester,there existed, in 1757, a fig tree protected by a wooden frame, supposed to beof very great age. On the stone wall to which it was trained there were se-veral inscriptions, one of which bore testimony that, in 1623, James I. “ tastedof the fruit of this tree with great pleasure.” Miller says that it was sufferedto perish for want of necessary repairs to the framework. A fig treebrought from Aleppo by Dr. Pococke, and which was planted by him, in 1648,iu the garden of the regius professor of Hebrew in Christ-Church, Oxford ,seems to be the only ancient fig tree on record still existing in Britain . Someof the figs produced by this tree were exhibited at a meeting of the LondonHorticultural Society, in August, 1819; and others gained a prize, as the bestwhite figs, at a meeting of the Oxford and Oxfordshire Horticultural Society,in August, 1833. An account of this tree, by Mr. Baxter, curator of theOxford Botanic Garden, will be found in the London Horticultural Society’sTransactions, vol. iii. p.433.; from which it appears that, in 1806, Dr. White,then professor of Hebrew in Christ-Church , caused an engraving to bemade of the tree. It was at that time 21ft. high, and the trunk mea-sured 3 ft. 6 in. in circumference at its upper part. The tree, when we sawit in 1833, contained but very slight remains of the old trunk; but it hadthrown out a number of branches, perhaps at that time of 20 or 30 years’growth, and some of which were upwards of 25 ft. in length. (See Gard.Mag., vol. x. p. 105.) The fig tree, though introduced so early, appears fora long time not to have been extensively cultivated in England. ProfessorBurnet thinks that this was owing to a popular prejudice, the fig having beenpnce a common vehicle for poison : a singular contrast to the ideas expressedm the Bible respecting this fruit; the best blessing of heaven being typifiedby every man sitting under his own fig tree. In France , the culture of the figtree was not carried to any degree of perfection till the time of Olivier De Serres ;but it is now general throughout the whole country. In the south ofFrance , figs are grown for drying as an article of commerce, but in the northernprovinces they are only used for the table. In the East, as well as in Italy and Spain , figs form a principal article of sustenance for the population, anda considerable article of commerce. According to M'Culloch, the import-ation into Britain is about 20,000 cwt., notwithstanding that every cwt.pays a duty of 21s., which exceeds 100 per cent upon the price of the figs inbond. If this duty were reduced, he says, to 8s. or 10s. the cwt., it may veryfairly be concluded that the quantity imported would very soon be trebled,

In Britain , the fig is in general cultivation in first-rate gardens; usuallyagainst walls; but in some parts of the southern counties, as along the coast0 ® us sex, and in Devonshire, &c., as standards. In Scotland , it is never seenas a standard; but it ripens its fruit against a south wall, without the aid ofnre heat, in some parts of East Lothian , and in WIgtonshire; and againsta nued wall, even in the neighbourhood of Glasgow . The largest fig treeagainst a wall which we have seen in England is at Farnham Castle, where, in5 years, it has reached the height of 40 ft. against the walls of the castle,he largest standard fig trees that we have seen are at Arundel Castle , wheree J are upwards of 25 ft. high, with trunks 1 ft. in diameter. At Tarring,n one °r two other places near Brighton, fig trees are grown as standards,