THE FIG. FICUS CARICA. "Close to the gates a spacious garden lies, The same mild season gives the blooms to blow, "GOD ALMIGHTY first planted a garden," says Lord Bacon: "it is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man." And in so saying he does not speak unadvisedly, or from envy or ignorance, for he had tasted, and that not sparingly, all the pleasures which station, wealth, and learning can bestow; but, in despite of them all, he thus gives it as his opinion that the simplest pleasures are the best. In the above description of the garden of Alcinous, we have all that riches and taste can heap together; but it does not require "this gay profusion of luxurious bliss to make a garden the source both of healthful employment and sincere gratification. "Happy they that can create a rose-tree, or erect a honeysuckle," says the poet Gray; "that can watch the brood of a hen, or see a fleet of their own ducklings launch into the water." It is somewhat remarkable that in. Virgil's description of the old Corycian's garden, which it is supposed contains all the fruits and plants common in cultivated grounds at that period, the fig, the vine, and the olive are not included; an omission accounted for by Sir W. Temple on the score that "these trees were grown to be fruits of their fields, rather than of their gardens.” This statement every traveller in those delicious climes confirms: they adorn the wayside, the fields, the hills, as commonly as the oak and the hop do ours. What a beautifully vivid picture the poet, lately quoted, gives of the route towards Naples! "The minute one leaves his Holiness' dominions, the face of things begins to change from wide uncultivated plains to olive groves and well-tilled fields of corn, intermixed K with rows of elms, every one of which has its vine twining about it, and hanging in festoons between the rows from one tree to another. The great old fig-trees, the oranges in full bloom, and myrtles in every hedge, make one of the most delightful scenes you can conceive." Dissimilar as are these trees, both in their mode of growth and their produce, they are yet constantly associated in the imagination. The reason of this is, not only because they are so frequently seen grouped together in eastern and southern landscapes (the same soil and temperature being common to each), but because they are always mentioned conjunctively in the Scriptures as symbols and proofs of prosperity and fertility. "The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land; *** a land of vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive, and honey." Deut. viii. 8. And when Joshua sent men to see the promised land, and bring a report of it and specimens of the fruits, " they came unto the brook Eschol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff: and they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs.” But we must leave the vine and the olive for future consideration, and direct our attention wholly to the fig. It is confessedly a native of Asia, but whether of any parts of Europe is a matter of conjecture; if not really indigenous, however, it has been cultivated there from the most remote antiquity. It is mentioned by Homer, not only in the lines selected for the motto, but also as surmounting a rock near where "Charybdis holds her boisterous reign." "Full on its crown a fig's green branches rise, And shoot a leafy forest to the skies." And in another passage he says, "There figs, sky-dyed, a purple hue disclose.” It was dedicated by the Romans to Saturn as the patron of agriculture; they crowned his statue with its fruit ; they planted it at the entrance to his temple; and also bore it in procession next in order to the vine in their bacchanalian festivals. The fig was held in the highest estimation, in early times, for its nutritious qualities ; and formed then, as now, a grateful repast to people whose primitive taste requires little else than fruits, vegetables, bread, and water. Sir W. Temple, a great advocate for simple diet, says, "The ancients seldom used either flesh or wine but at their sacrifices and solemn feasts;" and he adds, "It is common among Spaniards of the best quality not to have tasted wine at forty years old." Figs were amongst the articles of food allowed at the common tables established by Lycurgus; and by the Athenians they were deemed of so much importance, in this point of view, that their exportation was strictly prohibited. A failure in the crop of figs was considered by the Jews a national calamity; and when judgment was denounced against their land, this was always part of the curse, "There shall be no grapes on the vines, nor figs on the fig-tree." The fig sometimes bears a triple crop, thus supplying the inhabitants of the countries where it grows with fruit a great part of the year. The first ripe figs, according to Dr. Shaw, "are called boccôre, and come to maturity about the latter end of June, though, like other fruit, they yield a few ripe before the full season." These are probably of inferior value*; for the prophet Hosea says, "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her first time." When the boccôre draws near perfection, the karmouse, or summer fig, begins to be formed. This is the crop which is dried. When the karmouse This seems a little at variance with a passage in Jeremiah, xxiv. 2., "One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe." |