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Genus FICUS, Linn. — Part 2

Figs belong to a genus of 600 species scattered over all tropical countries. The trees have peculiar flowers lining the inside of a fleshy receptacle so that the "fig wasps" that fertilise them have to crawl in through a small opening.

Dried figs are an important commercial fruit. These are from varieties of Ficus Carica, an Asiatic species. Smyrna figs are best for drying. They are extensively raised in California, and cured for market. Other varieties, better adapted for use as a fresh fruit, are grown in many Southern States. The figs we buy are mostly from Asia Minor. The dependence of the fig upon the ministrations of the little wasp is one of the most interesting and baffling chapters in the romance of science.

The rubber plant, vastly popular in this country as a pot plant, is a Ficus. So is the famous banyan tree of India, and the sacred peepul tree of the Hindoos. Our native fig trees are sprawling parasitic forms, unable to stand alone.

The Golden Fig (F. aurea, Nutt.) climbs up another tree, which it strangles with its coiling stems and aerial roots. There is a famous specimen tree on one of the islands of southern Florida, which has spread by striking root with its drooping branches until it now covers with its secondary trunks an area of a quarter of an acre. It looks much like a banyan tree. More often in South Florida one sees this tree with a sturdy single trunk which has swallowed up the parasite that supported it in youth. Smooth as a beech trunk, with a crown of foliage more glossy than the live oak, this is a large and beautiful tree. The little yellow figs snuggle in the axils of the leaves and turn purple when ripe. They are succulent and sweet, and are sometimes used for jams and preserves.

Another interesting thing about Ficus aurea is that its wood is lighter than that of any other native tree. Its specific gravity is 0.26, which means that, bulk for bulk, this substance is only one-fourth as heavy as water. Most of our woods range between 0.40 and 0.80. The heaviest wood belongs also to a Florida tree, Krugiodendron ferreum, Urb., whose specific gravity, when seasoned, is 1.302.

The Poplar-leaf Fig (F. populnea, Willd.) is a rare parasite clambering up other trees on coral islands and reefs off the southernmost coast of Florida. Its thin, dark green leaves and long-stemmed fruits distinguish it from its near relative.