Of all the remaining fruits that are included under the
name of "pomes," the fig[1] is the largest: some, indeed, equal
the pear, even, in size. We have already mentioned, while
treating of the exotic fruits, the miraculous productions of
Egypt and Cyprus[2] in the way of figs. The fig of Mount
Ida[3] is red, and the size of an olive, rounder however, and
like a medlar in flavour; they give it the name of Alexandrian in those parts. The stem is a cubit in thickness; it is
branchy, has a tough, pliant wood, is entirely destitute of all
milky juice,[4] and has a green bark, and leaves like those of the
linden tree, but soft to the touch. Onesicritus states that in
Hyrcania the figs are much sweeter than with us, and that the
trees are more prolific, seeing that a single tree will bear as
much as two hundred and seventy modii[5] of fruit. The fig
has been introduced into Italy from other countries, Chalcis
and Chios, for instance, the varieties being very numerous:
there are those from Lydia also, which are of a purple colour,
and the kind known as the "mamillana,"[6] which is very
similar to the Lydian. The callistruthiæ are very little superior to the last in flavour; they are the coldest by nature of
all the figs. As to the African fig, by many people preferred
to any other, it has been made the subject of very considerable discussion, as it is a kind that has been introduced very
recently into Africa, though it bears the name of that country.
The earliest of them all is the porphyritis,[15] which has a stalk of remarkable length: it is closely followed by the popularis,[16] one of the very smallest of the figs, and so called from the low esteem in which it is held: on the other hand, the chelidonia[17] is a kind that ripens the last of all, and to- wards the beginning of winter. In addition to these, there are figs that are at the same time both late and early, as they bear two crops in the year, one white and the other black,[18] ripening at harvest-time and vintage respectively. There is another late fig also, that has received its name from the singular hardness of its skin; one of the Chalcidian varieties bears as many as three times in the year. It is at Tarentum only that the remarkably sweet fig is grown which is known by the name of "ona."
Speaking of figs, Cato has the following remarks: "Plant
the fig called the 'marisca' on a chalky or open site, but for
the African variety, the Herculanean, the Saguntine,[19] the
There are winter figs, too, in some of the provinces, the Mœsian, for instance; but they are made so by artificial means, such not being in reality their nature. Being a small variety of the fig-tree, they cover it up with manure at the end of autumn, by which means the fruit on it is overtaken by winter while still in a green state: then when the weather, becomes milder the fruit is uncovered along with the tree, and so restored to light. Just as though it had come into birth afresh, the fruit imbibes the heat of the new sun with the greatest avidity—a different sun, in fact, to that[21] which originally gave it life—and so ripens along with the blossom of the coming crop; thus attaining maturity in a year not its own, and this in a country,[22] too, where the greatest cold prevails.
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