Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/718

 F I G

The other object is the feed in which the plantula feminalis is very elegantly to be feeft. To this purpofe however, the largeft jigs muft be chofen, for the fmaller are commonly fuch as are pulled off from the tree before they are ripe. Out of one of thefe large and ripe^J, a fair feed is to be picked, and on cutting this carefully, the whole pulpy part may be feparated from the hard husk, and on examining it, there will be found lodged in it, a very perfect and beautiful little plant confiding of two leaves, and of a part which is to be the root, and an- other which is to be the ftalk, and in fine the trunk of the tree. The pulpy matter of this feed is covered with a delicate thin membrane, and this muft be carefully taken off before the plantule can be feen ; after this, all the reft is only a fort of pith deftined to give place and nourifhment to the young fhoot, before it is committed loofe to the earth.

Figs, in antiquity, were ufed in divination. See Sycomantia.

Fig, in the manege, is a fort of wart on the frufh, and fome~ times all over the body of a horfe. The figs that appear in the frufh or fole, make an evacuation of ftinking malignant humours, that are very hard to cure.

Fig infcft, in natural hiftory, a name given by the Englifh to the creature called by the 'French after Mr. Reamur, the faux puceron, or falfe puceron, from its very much refembling the puceron in -external appearance, but being extremely different from it when nearly examined. Thefe infects are when at their full growth of the bignefs of the head of a pin of the largeft fize, but there are ufually found among them feveral that are fmaller, down to fuch as are fcarce perceivable to the naked eye. They are found in great plenty on the back, or underfide of the leaves of the _^-tree, but they never are feen in clutters like the pucerons; twenty or thirty being the greateft number ufually found on one leaf, and thefe fcattered in different parts of it. Thefe animals tho* of the fame general figure with the pucerons, yet are of fo very different a nature, that they are all of them to become at length wing'd infects, none re- maining naked, as great part of the pucerons do; and they are not in a condition to multiply or bring forth young in this ftate, but muft pafs thro' their transformation firft into the fly, like that to whofe eggs they owed their origin. The cafes under which the wings are placed in this ftate are very large, and take up a great deal of room on the animal -, they extend themfclves alfo as far as the extremity of the head, fo that they give the creature a very fingular figure, it being much thicker and broader before than behind, and its head looking at the extremity fquare, as if cut oft" evenly from fome other body.

The body'and breaft of this infect are green, and the cafes of the wings are white and befet with hairs. This creature has two antennm or horns, which it can exert and fhew at plea- fure; but they ufually are lodg'd under the furrows of the wings, and are not to be feen, unlefs the animal be turned belly upwards ; the head alfo is bent downwards, and the eyes feem directed to look at objects only placed under them. Reau- mur's Hift. Inf. v. 6. p. 98.

It has fix legs, and a fine fmall trunk ifTuing from the extre- mity of the head ; this is but fhort, and is of a lively green ; it is terminated by a fharp point, and has a fine brown fila- ment like a hair, which it thrufts out of the body of the trunk at pleafure, and which feems a fort of engine or organ deftin- ed to convey into the body the juices extravafated by the wound and fuction of the trunk. The creature ufually re- mains in perfect quietnefs on the leaf on which it is found, but has this peculiarity in its pofition, that it is always found with its head refting upon one of the ribs of the leaf, and its body on the plain part ; by this means the anterior part of the head is raifed above the furface of the plain part of the leaf, and the creature can by that advantage move his trunk about at plea- ■ fure, and fix it into different parts of the leaf, while his'body is perfectly ftill all the time.

Thefe creatures throw off their skins many times in their growth, the furrows marking the places where their wings are, and the protuberances made by their cafes, are always feen, however young they are examined. When they are about to throw off" the skin, it opens by a fiight crack in the middle of the breaft, and the creature firft enlarges this flit by various motions, and there thrufts out its head at it; this is followed by the anterior pair of legs, and the motions of thefe parts foon difengage the remainder of the body. The skins which they thus caft off, have ufually fome cottony matter on their hinder part, as the exuvize of the pucerons of many kinds have. The refemblance of the puceron kind, is alfo kept up in the excrements, for this animal voids no other than a clear and limpid fluid like water; this is however very vifcous, and by that means often forms itfelf into a large drop, before it is thrown off from the body of the animal. If the creature be at any time fqueezed, it immediately Voids fuch a drop, and the efforts ufed by it in quiring its exuvise, feem alfo to have the fame effl-ct, lor there is always a drop (tisn on the old skin. Though the leaves of the _/Sg--tree are the ufual refidence of thefe animals, they are fometimes found on the young fruit. In fome feafom when they are very plentiful, every green fig Will be found furrounded by twenty or more of them, but it

F I G

does not appear that they do any harm. In the months of May and June, thefe infeas all become wing'd, and afford a peculiar fpecies of a four-wing' d fly, which is remarkable for hopping, but as its hinder legs are not Great- ly larger than the reft, it leaps but a little way at a timej The body of this fly is green, its wings are bordered with yel- low, and its legs are white ; it has a trunk of the fame na- ture with that of the creature before its wing'd ftate, and with this it continues to feek the juices of the leaves of the /g-tree as it did before.

It continues alfo in the fame manner to void a claar vifcous fluid by way of excrements, and this is done in a very lingu- lar manner : the end of the body is terminated by a fhort pipe or tube, which in its common pofture runs parallel with the reft of the body, and is placed in an horizontal dircdion ; but when it is to be ufed in voiding the excrement, the crea- ture turns it up in a very remarkable manner, fo that it ftands perpendicularly to the body. The wings are folded up fo as fcarce to appear diftinft when the creature is firft delivered from its laft exuviae; but they foon begin to unfold thcmi'clves, and by degrees arrive at their full extent, and are placed over the body (b as to make an angle, and form a fort of covering or tent for the body. The manner in which thefe animal's propagate their fpecies, is not yet known. The pucerons, to which they more approach in figure than to any other ani- mals, have always young ones found within them ; but thefe if examined in whatever ftate, never have any fuch appearance, not even fo much as eggs being found in them ; it fhould feem that their eggs are too minute for our infpeaion, but that they are oviparous, not viviparous animals. Reaumur's Hift. vol. 6. p. 98.

Fic-tree. There are fome different fpecies of this tree cultivated in the gardens of England, but many more in thofe of France and Italy, where the fruit is in very high efteem, as it is alfo with the nicer palates here ; though fo much out of favour with the vulgar, that it ftands fafe on trees planted in places fo expofed, that every other fpecies of fruit would be ftripped by robbers. •'

One great difcouragement to their more frequent propa- gation in England, is the unskilfulnefs of the generality of our gardeners in their culture and management. To obviate which, it may not be amifs to fay fomewhat at large here, of the proper management of all the fpecies of this tree. The common method has been to propagate thefe trees by fuckers from the roots of the old ones, but they are much more fuccefsfully raifed from cuttings. The branches may be laid down in February, and by the February of the following year, they will be fit to remove. This is the proper feafon to tranfplant them; and the beft foil is fuch as has a Gravelly, chalkey, or flony bottom, with a light furface ; the tree will feem to flourifh indeed more in a better foil, but in this poor one it will produce the fined and moft plentiful fruit. They fhould always be planted in a free open fituation, not fhaded by trees or buildings, and will never ripen their fruit well unlefs againft a good fouth, fouth-eaft or fouth-weft wall. They fhould be planted at twenty feet diftance, and the height for the wall they ftand againft, is about fourteen feet; the middle fpaces be- tween the trees, may be planted with vines to fill up the vacant part of the wall till thejfcj are grown, and then thefe fhould be taken up. In the lummer, as the branches fhoot, they muft be trained horizontally againft the walls, and no fore- right fhoots fhould be fuffered to come, but the buds of fuch fhould be rubbed off as faft as they appear. At Michaelmas they fhould be always prun'd and nailed up. The "reat care to be had in pruning the old trees, is always to have" a fupply of young branches, for it is thole only which produce fruit None of the fhoots of the former autumn prunin" muft be fhortened, for it is on the two year old wood, that the fruit is produced ; the young branches muft be always brought very clofe to the wall, and this will fcreen them from injuries by frofts, and much forward the early ripening of their fruit The old branches fhould never be laid in too thick, which is a great fault among moft gardeners ; the diftance- ought to be at leaft a foot between branch and branch, and as the youn<- ones grow ttrong, the old ones fhould be always cutaway" In April or the beginning of May, feveral of the leading fhoots' fhould be flopped, which makes them throw out fide branches' In very hard weather the trees fhould be covered with ftraw' peas,halm or the like; and that not to be removed till the wea- ther is milder, and then not all at once, but only by a little at a time. The higher the wood runs up the wall, ufually fo much the better tailed is the fruit; and no trees fucceed better in fruiting, than thofe which are nailed up againft chim- nies, where belide the height, they have fome advantage from the heat. Miller's Gardener's Diet. See Ficus.

FIGWORT warm, in natural hiftory, the name of an infefl which feeds on the leaves of the fciophularia or figwort and' which is ufually efteemed a caterpillar, but is one of 'thofe infeas called by the French faufTe chenilles. Its head is fphe- rical, and it has twenty-two legs, and by thefe characters and the changing its colour alter the parting with its laft skin, it may be diftmguifhed from the caterpillars, without waiting for its

laft