The fig-tree is repeatedly mentioned in the Scriptures, where with the vine, it often stands as the symbol of peace and plenty. Neither fig nor vine was known in Greece, the Archipelago and the neighbouring coasts of Asia Minor during the Homeric age, though both were very common in the time of Plato. The fig-tree was early introduced into Italy, whence it reached Spain and Gaul. Charlemagne (A.D. 768-814) ordered its cultivation in Central Europe. It was brought to England in the reign of Henry VIII. by Cardinal Pole, whose trees still exist in the garden of Lambeth Palace. But it had certainly been in cultivation at a much earlier period, for the historian Matthew Paris relates1 that the year 1257 was so inclement that apples and pears were scarce in England, and that figs, cherries and plums totally failed to ripen. At the present day, the fig-tree is found cultivated in most of the temperate countries both of the old and new world. Its fruit can only be preserved in those regions where the summer and autumn are very warm and dry. 2 History-Figs were a valued article of food among the ancient Hebrews and Greeks, as they are to the present day in the warmer countries bordering the Mediterranean. In the time of Pliny many varieties were in cultivation. The Latin word Carica was first used to designate the dried fig of Caria, a strip of country in Asia Minor opposite Rhodes, an esteemed variety of the fruit corresponding to the Smyrna fig of modern times. In a diploma granted by Chilperic II., king of the Franks, to the monastery of Corbie, A.D. 716, mention is made of "Karigas," in connexion with dates, almonds and olives, by which we think dried figs (Carica) were intended. Dried figs were a regular article of trade during the middle ages, from the southern to the northern parts of Europe. In England, the average price between A.D. 1264 and 1398, was about 13d. per lb., raisins and currants being 23d.5 Description-A fig consists of a thick, fleshy, hollow receptacle of a pear-shaped form, on the inner face of which grow a multitude of minute fruits. This receptacle, which is provided with an orifice at the top, is at first green, tough and leathery, exuding when pricked a milky juice. The orifice is surrounded and almost closed by a number of thick, fleshy scales, near which and within the fig, the male flowers are situated, but they are often wanting or are not fully developed. The female flowers stand further within the receptacle, in the body of which they are closely packed; they are stalked, have a 5-leafed perianth and bipartite stigma. The ovary which is generally one-celled, becomes when ripe, a minute, dry, hard nut, popularly regarded as a seed. As the fig advances to maturity, the receptacle enlarges, becomes softer and more juicy, a saccharine fluid replacing the acrid milky sap. It also acquires a reddish hue, while its exterior becomes purple, brown or yellow, though in some varieties it continues green. The fresh fig has 1 English History, Bohn's edition, iii. (1854) 255. 2 See in particular 1 Sam. xxv. 18 and 1 Chron. xii. 40; where we read of large supplies of dried figs being provided for the use of fighting men. 3 On the Riviera of Genoa, dried figs eaten with bread are a common winter food of the peasantry. Pardessus, Diplomata, Charta, etc., ii. (1849) 309. 5 Rogers, Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England, i. (1866) 632. an agreeable and extremely saccharine taste, but it wants the juiciness. and refreshing acidity that characterize many other fruits. If a fig is not gathered, its stalk loses its firmness, the fruit hangs pendulous from the branch, begins to shrivel and become more and more saccharine by loss of water, and ultimately if the climate is favourable, it assumes the condition of a dried fig. On the large scale however, figs are not dried on the tree, but are gathered and exposed to the sun and air in light trays till they acquire the proper degree of dryness. Dried figs are termed by the dealers, either natural or pulled. The first are those which have not been compressed in the packing, and still retain their original shape.1 The second are those which after drying have been made supple by squeezing and kneading, and in that state packed with pressure into drums and boxes. Smyrna figs, which are the most esteemed sort, are of the latter kind. They are of irregular, flattened form, tough, translucent, covered with a saccharine efflorescence; they have a pleasant fruity smell and luscious taste. Figs of inferior quality, as those called in the market Greek Figs, differ chiefly in being smaller and less pulpy. Microscopic Structure-The outer layer of a dried fig is made up of small, thick-walled and densely packed cells, so as to form a kind of skin. The inner lax parenchyme consists of larger thin-walled cells, traversed by vascular bundles and large, slightly branched, laticiferous vessels. The latter contain a granular substance not soluble in water. In the parenchyme, stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium occur, but in no considerable number. Chemical Composition.-The chemical changes which take place in the fig during maturation are important, but no researches have yet been made for their elucidation. The chief chemical substance in the ripe fig is grape sugar, which constitutes from 60 to 70 per cent. of the dried fruit. Gum and fatty matter appear to be present only in very small quantity. We have observed that unripe figs contain starch. Production and Commerce-Dried figs were imported into the United Kingdom in 1872, to the amount of 141,847 cwt., of which 91,721 cwt. were shipped from Asiatic Turkey, the remainder being from Portugal, Spain, the Austrian territories and other countries. The value of the total imports is estimated at £231,571. Uses-Dried figs are thought to be slightly laxative, and as such are occasionally recommended in habitual constipation. They enter into the composition of Confectio Senna. MORACEÆ. FRUCTUS MORI. Bacca Mori, Mora; Mulberries; F. Mures; G. Maulbeeren. Botanical Origin-Morus nigra L., a handsome bushy tree, about 30 feet in height, growing wild in Northern Asia Minor, Armenia, and the southern Caucasian regions as far as Persia. In Italy, it was em1 The word Eleme applied in the London hops to dried figs of superior quality ("Eleme Figs") is probably a corruption of the Turkish ellémé, signifying hand-picked. ployed for feeding the silkworm until about the year 1434, when M. alba L. was introduced from the Levant,' and has ever since been commonly preferred. Yet in Greece, in many of the Greek islands, Calabria and Corsica, the species planted for the silkworm is still M. nigra. The mulberry tree is now cultivated throughout Europe, yet excepting in the regions named, by no means abundantly. It ripens its fruit in England, as well as in Southern Sweden and Gottland, and in favourable summers even in Christiania (Schübeler). History The mulberry tree is mentioned in the Old Testament, and by most of the early Greek and Roman writers. Among the large number of useful plants ordered by Charlemagne (A.D. 812) to be cultivated on the imperial farms, the mulberry tree (Morarius) did not escape notice. We meet with it also in a plan sketched A.D. 820, for the gardens of the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland. The cultivation of the mulberry in Spain is implied by a reference to the preparation of Syrup of Mulberries, in the Calendar of Cordova 5 which dates from the year 961. A curious reference to mulberries, proving them to have been far more esteemed in ancient times than at present, occurs in the statutes of the abbey of Corbie in Normandy, in which we find a Brevis de Melle, showing how much honey the tenants of the monastic lands were required to pay annually, followed by a statement of the quantity of Mulberries which each farm was expected to supply." Description-The tree bears unisexual catkins; the female, of an ovoid form, consists of numerous flowers with green four-lobed perianths and two linear stigmas. The lobes of the perianth overlapping each other become fleshy, and by their lateral aggregation form the spurious berry, which is shortly stalked, oblong, an inch in length, and, when ripe, of an intense purple. By detaching a single fruit, the lobes of the former perianth may be still discerned. Each fruit encloses a hard lenticular nucule, covering a pendulous seed with curved embryo and fleshy albumen. Mulberries are extremely juicy and have a refreshing, subacid, saccharine taste; but they are devoid of the fine aroma that distinguishes many fruits of the order Rosacea. Chemical Composition-In an analysis made by H. van Hees (1857) mulberries yielded the following constituents : Insoluble matters (the seeds, pectose, cellulose, &c.) 1·25 ... ... ... ... ... 84.71 100.00 1 A. De Candolle, Géogr. botanique, ii. (1855) 856. 2 2 Sam. v. 23, 24. 3 Pertz, Monumenta Germania historica (Leges) iii. (1835) 181. 4 F. Keller, Bauriss des Klosters S Gallen, facsimile, Zürich, 1844. 5 Le Calendrier de Cordoue de l'année 961, publié par R. Dozy, Leyde, 1873. 67. 6 Guérard, Polyptique de l'Abbé Irminon, Paris, ii. 335. With regard to the results of researches on other edible fruits, made about the same time in the laboratory of Fresenius, it would appear that the mulberry is one of the most saccharine, being only surpassed by the cherry (10-79 of sugar) and grape (10-6 to 19-0). It is richer in sugar than the following, namely : Raspberries, yielding 4 per cent. of sugar and 1:48 of (malic) acid. The amount of free acid in the mulberry is not small, nor is it excessive. The small proportion of insoluble matters is worthy of notice in comparison, for instance, with the whortleberry which contains no less. than 13 per cent. The colouring matter of the mulberry has not been examined. The acid is probably not simply malic, but in part tartaric. Uses The sole use in medicine of mulberries is for the preparation of a syrup, employed to flavour or colour other medicines. In Greece, the fruit is submitted to fermentation, thereby furnishing an inebriating beverage. CANNABINEÆ. HERBA CANNABIS. Cannabis Indica; Indian Hemp; F. Chanvre Indien; G. Hanfkraut. Botanical Origin-Cannabis sativa L, Common Hemp, an annual diœcious plant, native of Western and Central Asia, cultivated in temperate as well as in tropical countries. It grows wild luxuriantly on the banks of the lower Ural and Volga near the Caspian Sea, extending thence to Persia, the Altai range, and Northern and Western China. It is found in Kashmir and on the Himalaya, growing 10 to 12 feet high, and thriving vigorously at an elevation of 6000 to 10,000 feet. It likewise occurs in Tropical Africa, on the eastern and western coasts as well as in the central tracts watered by the Congo and Zambesi, but whether truly indigenous is doubtful. It has been naturalized in Brazil, north of Rio de Janeiro, the seeds having been brought thither by the negroes from Western Africa. The cultivation of hemp is carried on in many parts of continental Europe, but especially in Central and Southern Russia. The hemp plant grown in India, exhibits certain differences as contrasted with that cultivated in Europe, which were noticed by Rumphius in the 17th century, and which, at a later date, induced Lamarck to claim for the former plant the rank of a distinct species, under the name of Cannabis indica. But the variations observed in the two plants are of so little botanical importance and are so inconstant, that the maintenance of C. indica as distinct from C. sativa has been abandoned by general consent. In a medicinal point of view, there is a wide dissimilarity between hemp grown in India and that produced in Europe, the former being vastly more potent. Yet even in India there is much variation, for according to Jameson, the plant grown at altitudes of 6000 to 8000 1 The fig excepted, which is much more saccharine than any. feet, affords the resin known as Charas, which cannot be obtained from that cultivated on the plains.1 History-Hemp has been propagated on account of its textile fibre and oily seeds from a remote period. 2 The ancient Chinese herbal called Rh-ya, written about the 5th century B.C., notices the fact that the hemp plant is of two kinds, the one producing seeds, the other flowers only. In the writings of Susruta on Hindu medicine, supposed to date some centuries before the Christian era, hemp (B'hangá) is mentioned as a remedy. Herodotus states that hemp grows in Scythia both wild and cultivated, and that the Thracians make garments from it which can hardly be distinguished from linen. He also describes how the Scythians expose themselves as in a bath to the vapour of the seeds thrown on hot coals.3 The Greeks and Romans appear to have been unacquainted with the medicinal powers of hemp, unless indeed the care-destroying Nŋterbes should, as Royle has supposed, be referred to this plant. According to Stanislas Julien, anæsthetic powers were ascribed by the Chinese to preparations of hemp as early as the commencement of the 3rd century. The employment of hemp both medical and dietetic, appears to have spread slowly through India and Persia to the Arabians, amongst whom the plant was used in the early middle ages. The famous heretical sect of Mahomedans, whose murderous deeds struck terror into the hearts of the Crusaders during the 11th and 12th centuries, derived their name of Hashishin or, as it is commonly written, assassins, from hashish the Arabic for hemp, which in certain of their rites, they used as an intoxicant.6 The use of hemp (bhang) in India was particularly noticed by Garcia d'Orta 7 (1563), and the plant was subsequently figured by Rheede, who described the drug as largely used on the Malabar coast. It would seem about this time to have been imported into Europe, at least, occasionally, for Berlu in his Treasury of Drugs, 1690, describes it as coming from Bantam in the East Indies, and "of an infatuating quality and pernicious use." It was Napoleon's expedition to Egypt that was the means of again calling attention to the peculiar properties of hemp, by the accounts of De Sacy (1809) and Rouger (1810). But the introduction of the Indian drug into European medicine is of still more recent date, and is chiefly due to the experiments made in Calcutta by O'Shaughnessy in 1838-398 1 Journ. of the Agric. and Hortic. Soc. of India, viii. 167. 2 Bretschneider, On Chinese Botanical Works, 1870. 5. 10. Part of the Rh-ya was written in the 12th cent. B. C. 3 Rawlinson's translation, iii. (1859) book 4, chap. 74-5. 4 Comptes Rendus, xxviii. (1849) 195. 5 Hence the words assassin and assassinate. Weil, however, is of opinion that the word assassin is more probably derived from sikkin, a dagger.-Geschichte der Chalifen, iv. (1860) 101. 6 The miscreant who assassinated Justice Norman at Calcutta, 20 Sept. 1871, is said to have acted under the influence of hashish. Bellew (Indus to the Tigris, 1874. 218) |