Page:Figs by Dahlgren, B. E. (Bror Eric).djvu/10

2 even as vines. Two species grow native in the sub-tropical, southern part of Florida. One of them is a so-called "strangling fig." These begin their lives as parasites on other trees, growing at first much like the mistletoe, but eventually sending their own roots to the ground.

The cultivated fig (Ficus carica) is a native of Semitic Asia, perhaps particularly of southern Arabia, but occurs also in Syria and in Palestine. Smyrna was as famous for its figs in ancient times as it is now. From western Asia the Phoenicians and later the Arabs carried the fig throughout the entire Mediterranean region. The old Greeks scoffed at the barbarians who did not have figs and wine. Romulus and Remus, according to tradition, were suckled by a she-wolf under a fig tree. In ancient lore the fig occupied a place such as does our more familiar apple tree of the Garden of Eden. Before the appearance of man, figs grew in Europe and in North America. Leaves and fruits like those of the cultivated fig have been found fossil in France. With the Glacial Period the fig of course disappeared from the modern temperate zone those which now grow in Europe were all introduced horticulturally. Figs have long been grown in China, having been brought by way of Persia from Asia Minor. In modern times the cultivated fig has been introduced into many lands. It is grown in South and Southwest Africa, in South America, and in Australia. It has been grown in Sussex in England. It is successfully cultivated in the United States, especially in California and in the Gulf Region, particularly in Texas. In African Sudan where the fig has failed to grow on its own roots, it has been grown budded on the more tropical sycamore fig.

The cultivated fig is ordinarily a rapidly growing small tree with palmately lobed leaves and with a soft