Figs in their fig trees

September in the Var - after a very hot summer, here are already ripe figs and allow themselves to be picked.

Unless of course the birds are not been there, who are very fond of, such as pies ...

... And pleasure for the visitor to enjoy a fig passing black or white
picked on a branch overhanging a road or trail.



And what says the dictionary Furetière 1690 :
/ And also footer items from the dictionary picturesque natural history Félix édouard Guérin 1839


FIG. Soft fruit & sweet that comes in the form of small pear. There are white figs & figs violets. There are also black & color of purple, green, reddish, pale, and several other colors. They are harvested in the fall, and we put them on racks to dry. A basket of figs.
Fig fat is an old fig, a fig or a big old fig used to mature abscesses.
It is said proverbially, Half figs, grapes half, to say that something has been done quite well, or poorly, partly voluntarily, and partly by force.
It is also said, Make someone fig for, Making fun of him. This proverb comes from the Italian Far fica. It takes its origin, said that Munster & other authors, that the Milanese rebelled against being Frederick had driven ignominiously out of their city his wife Empress mounted on an old mule named Tacor, with the back turned to the head of the mule, and face to the crupper. Frédéric having the subjugated him to a fig parties Tacor shameful, and forced all captives of Milan pull this publicly fig with their teeth, and give it to the same place without using their hands, just to be hanged & strangled on the field: and they were obliged to tell the executioner who was present, Ecco la fica. This is the biggest insult you can do to make them as Milanese fig: what we do by showing them the tip of the thumb rail between two neighboring fingers. Hence the proverb went to other nations, and even the Spaniards, who say, Dar las higas. Latins derisively showed half of the nail, as we see in this passage of Juvenal, that oftenderet unguem medium. The French are the horns, showing two fingers extended to the same line.

FIG TREE. Tree bears figs. The fig tree has a short trunk & twisted, the wood white and spongy, like the vine, viscous & clean making shields. It encloses a milk astringent, bitter & spicy taste that can easily ulcerate, little sink its roots in the earth: this is because he fears the cold. its leaf is big, strong & bitter as the vine attached to a round tail & strong, the fruit out even before the leaves, and begins to sprout branches at the top. It is made trumpet-shaped, sometimes like a pear, it is sometimes flat, sometimes it partakes of both. The milk of the fig tree, both private and wild caught as milk rennet, and dissolves that which is sour like vinegar. Called the fig tree, the wisest of trees, because it grows its leaves after the frosts are past. The fig is the earliest white fig, fig flower is called, which is of three kinds, the big short tail, the long tail, and the small of Marseille. All three are white outside & inside strong sweet & soft. Yellow fig is very big, a little red in it, the color of Granada, has the largest seeds, and is very good. The purple fig flat size is poor, and the long purple is very large, called fig of Spain, and has difficulty was mature. The green fig, called brugeotte is shorter, and smaller evergreen outside, and very red inside. Fig Bordeaux called the Angelic, or langon is purple, long, petite, red inside, and the most exquisite. Dioscorides & Matthiole. Ficus in Latin, Greek fyca. Theophrastus, Strabo & Pliny mention another fig tree of India, which annually sheds its branches to the ground, where they bend, to resume, and reject so, it is sometimes a small forest form of a vault or arch of an excessive size. His shadow is sometimes two stages, and around the trunk is often not 60. its leaf is as large as a buckler Amazon, and it bears a small fruit like figs. Relations of the East are, in the Maldives there is a fig tree that produces a similar root to the top of its branches, which falls into the ground, and in other products. Adam after his sin was made garments of fig leaves. Jesus cursed the fig tree he found no fruit.

Engraving of flower of fig tree on the page of daisies

And what says the dictionary picturesque natural history Félix édouard Guérin 1839


FIG. Fruit of the Fig tree, sometimes affecting the shape of a pear, that sometimes globular, whose size varies from that of a filbert to that of a regular high apple. There are two kinds of figs, or the fig-flower in spring, summer and Fig. The first matures in our southern departments, depending on the variety, more or less hasty, since the beginning of June until July series, and later in regions further north, she was born on the branches of the anée previous it is usually very large. The second, or Fall, soon to succeed him since August through September and October, it is smaller, more succulent, and if it offers some figs a remarkable volume is always in the axils of larger leaves. If the frost does not come in to stop the production, it would bring more throughout the month of November. Each of these races has a wealth of varieties whose names and qualities vary infinitely according to the places that produce them. They are arranged according to the color in two categories, white, yellow and green one hand, violets, red, brown or blackish on the other hand. Include the main ones:
I. White figs. - The Midi Fig white skin smooth, pale green, and its juice is sweet, very pleasant it is pyriform, is that it is grown at Argenteuil under the name Big round, she is fertile, delicious and a pleasant smell, especially when it is harvested in the last days of summer. - The Prickly Marseille, small, round, white outside, red inside; fresh, it happens for the best and most fragrant, dry, it takes precedence over all others. This variety ripens late, thrives only on the coasts of the departments of Var and Bouches-du-Rhône. - The Prickly Lipari, round, white, sweet as honey, is the smallest of all those that are grown in France, she gave two crops. - The Fig Coucoubelle and is almost round, white, striped, red inside, and when ripe it is eaten with pleasure fragrance is very pleasant. It occurs three to four met together in the axil of a single leaf. - The Fig Angélique or Melette is white, round, raised ribs, pulp of a reddish fawn, very palatable. It gives a first crop figs elongated: Second harvest is less abundant, and the fruit is not left to ripen perfectly filled with a milky juice which makes very poor. - The green fig or Cuers and is a dark green, bluish, very dark red inside, on a long stalk. It gives the singular nickname Trompe-hunter, because it does not seem to be ripe when it is good to eat. - The Fig big yellow or white Aubique is the largest that we know, at first white, it turns yellow when ripe and has a beautiful red pulp, a very fine taste and sweet . - The Prickly Salerno, white, globular, early, melting when it is fresh, very clean and excellent dry in this state. - And the fig hairy, light green, dotted with small white dots, thick skin covered with hair, the tree which bears provides many, the flower not being subject to flow; Celtic we do not eat much dried figs that.
II. Purple figs. - The Fig Monissoune, very common in the south-east and is found sometimes to Paris, but she does not ripen in the years of great heat this pretty variety has very thin skin, a blue purple, often cracked and is the Prickly this class the most delicate, the flesh of which is the most fun to eat the figs first season are: larger and more elongated than those of the second - the big fig violet long, it should not be confused with the previous door and in the south the name Aubique black, with the largest fruit, but they have a sweet flavor. Their skin is dark purple and covered with dust glitter, transparent, while the flesh is of a beautiful red. - The Fig Bellone, oblong, flattened at the top, two crops of fruit are also sought for their kindness, and when the tree is planted on dry land, it is prone to sink or to become a matte white within. - The Fig Bargemort elongated, a little purple on a yellow background, excellent cool and dry. - The brown Coucourelle is estimated that early because it is fairly large. - The Fig servantine or Cinch is a delicious flavor and the best we can eat when it is the first sap Garidel confused with the white Coucourelie.
Figs are a good food, little eating, which we do not disgusting, even in the disease state. In the North, they are less tasty, but in the south they meet all the qualities that make them look eagerly. Pregnant women eat a lot a few days before their term because they assign the property to make childbirth easier and quicker: this is a prejudice that has nothing untoward. There is not even one who accuses cause fevers access and makes them anathematize by doctors educated, under this ridiculous pretense deprives sick or indisposed just a fruit salutary back alone the organs of taste depraved. I wanted to trace the origin of Celtic vulgar opinion, and I am convinced she was born that the ripe fig coincides with the time when fevers are more frequent and more annoying than any other time year, not knowing what to attribute evil, we have dropped the fruit of the fig tree; ignorance and quackery have therefore proscribed, and power by as much of a tradition too complacently adopted by laziness, defended the use of at least a precaution Fig. Greek physicians were more advanced in this regard that the modern they recommended the ripe figs to those who wanted to get well or find a lost health. Those who are not reached that state of perfection are harmful, indigestible and contain a milky juice acre.
The dry fig is more nutritious than fresh, it forms a considerable branch of trade, and is then divided into three classes, Fig fat, violets and small. The latter is the best of all. The Dried figs are taken from early varieties, they are placed under the strongest action of sunlight, and when they are developed, they are placed in baskets that are deposited in a place dry. Figs that are dried in the oven are the most common and those that are intended for cattle. In ancient Greece, as in modern Greece, in Italy, of all ages, Dried figs were the staple food of the people of the country and the people. It was in superb showing from Carthage Cato did decide that the Third Punic War.
Among the ancients were prepared with Figs, under the name Sycite, a fermented liquor, they put the fruit in water, and when the vinous fermentation was in place, they decanted. Waiting a few more days, they obtained a great vinegar if used figs came from Cyprus or better Egypt. This is a result of these processes, transmitted from age to age, the Greeks of the Archipelago from their Figs vinegar and eau-de-vie.
The juice of the fig, developed, perfected and refined for twelve hours after it was harvested, becomes a delicious syrup.
This result seems to be eaten on the tree, or at least not travel far, his film is extremely thin and susceptible to wilt at the slightest tremor. It should be wrapped very carefully, not paper as we do for pears, apples, etc.., Nor with fern like plums, apricots or with chestnut leaves, such as cherries , nor with vine leaves, such as peaches and grapes, but with cabbage finely ribbed, including the skin soft, smooth, glossy, damaging the points of Fig. The fig leaves no good, it is too harsh.
Many birds are very fond of Fig. Le Bec-Figue is most eager to share his harvest with the farmer, his flesh is very delicate and preferred to that of the Ortolan.



FIG TREE, Ficus. Native to warm regions of the world, trees and shrubs that we know under the name fig trees is a very interesting kind of family Urticées, and are part of Polygamy dioecy. All are milky, alternate leaves are more or less deeply lobed, dark green, flowers gathered in large numbers in a common receptacle, fleshy, umbilicate at the top, fitted at the base of some scaly bracts, the male flowers occupy the upper part towards the edge of the opening known as the eye of the fig, they 'have a cup three to five divisions lanceolate, straight, uneven, containing the same number of stamens with free, the length of the calyx, anthers carrying two boxes, and often rudimentary pistil abortion, female flowers in larger quantities, full cover the entire inner wall; calyx has five cuts lanceolate, nearly equal the The ovary is superior, loaded with style awl, curved, acute and two stigmas. The fruit that results from the union of these organs is pulpy, filled with small seeds shellfish, opening in climates that are clean, in four parts becoming perpendicular to the stem.
The number of known species now stands at eighty-six. The most famous are:
1 The fig tree pagodas, F. religiosa tree sandy and stony from India, where he is revered because he has told, served as a theater at birth and transfiguration of the deity is worshiped in the temples, where it is forbidden to cut, whatever its size, its elevation, its age. Its top extends horizontally and is formed of branches with leaves borne on long, slender stalks, which are agitated in every direction at the slightest wind, the fruits are small, globose, about the size of a filbert about reddish when they are ripe, and placed in pairs on younger branches.
2 ° The Bengal fig, F. bengalensis, giving very large tree alone in his native forests almost impenetrable by the number of cylindrical jets that descend from its branches, rooted as they touch the ground, forming arches green, cradles shady refuge where several thousand birds plumage and brighten their songs they love. These jets then give rise to new shoots, including bifurcations and interleaving are many new trees related to the head of this family alive by a gigantic chain and almost eternal
Then, bending turn in their heavy loads, are other children whose fertility is the guarantee of their immortal posterity.
3 ° The fig-sycamore, F, sycomorus, who acquires in Egypt a great elevation, considerable size and covers a large area. Fruit, a yellowish white. a sweet, but a little tricky taste, are small and born on the trunk and large branches on leafless in clumps. Its wood is incorruptible precisely known, since all cases where there is contained the oldest mummies are perfectly preserved, was told he was wrong poisonous. Its foliage is very beautiful, the top page is a green black, while the underside is covered with a fluffy white duvet.
4 Le fig tree Malays, F, paludosa, which farmers use Java as a hedge fence. It is a tree of the fourth magnitude, with very thick bark of an ash gray, which carries branches spreading in all directions, with leaves large enough and bright green black. We remove resin, first clear and limpid, and then exposed to the air taking a light consistency, which mingles with that of Badamier, Terminalia vernix, to make it brighter and more solid. The boxes are coated resin that has long resisted the action of air and water.
5 ° The elastic Fi tree, F, etastica, from the mountains of Nepal. This species grows with uncommon vigor, rises very high and yields a gum elastic whence comes the name it received. Its branches cylindrical cover large leaves, very entire, shiny, and offering their underside a longitudinal rib very pronounced, almost as big as the petiole which supports them.
6 The wild fig, F. sylvestris, commonly called Caprifiguier, small tree, often tortuous, which grows wild in the south of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is he that has perfected the culture for many centuries, and which was a peculiar species as the common fig, F, carica. As is the case most interesting for the farmer, we'll get on it in all details that appear worthy of the attention.
This tree is five and ten meters: its trunk is covered with a greyish bark, united enough, he carries a large number of spreading branches, forming a head almost exactly like that of an apple. Below in Syria, the fig suffers cold winters, he stands in bush three and a half meters at the top, yet not only is it a good show, and produces very little good fruit. I have, however, excepting those that I've seen. in the department of Sarthe, around houses built in the valley watered by the Loire. They give a lot and have a very nice effect. Those who inhabit the territory of Argenteuil, near Paris, do not provide more than the white fig round, only today delicious, the red or purple is lost, since the extraordinary cold of 1763 and 1776, all the qualities that he had acquired the agricultural industry, powerfully stimulated by the flow of food safety, the city offered daily immense, permanent home consumption.
The common fig has the heart-shaped leaves, divided into three or five lobes obtuse, dark green, rough on top, pubescent below and charged with prominent veins. It has a large number of varieties (we cite more than forty), whose fruits are white, yellow or pale green, as long as wide, or reddish, purple or brown, wider than long. Each of these varieties has a particular port that can be used to recognize, but it is almost impossible to describe, and even it has a number of sub-varieties.
it would be difficult to say where the culture of fig tree began, historical facts do not go back beyond the Hebrews who received the Egyptians, and in which he was regarded as the ultimate goal of all desires, and as a token of appreciation perfect the advantage of living in his shadow. The Greeks cultivated from the earliest times of civilization, not only the fruit formed the basis of their food part of the year, but it was an important export industry, they knew the various propagation methods used in modern and the art of grafting, they even had him caprification (qv) to accelerate its maturity. The Romans occupied much of the culture of this tree, géoponiques their writers speak of thirty varieties they raised with special care and that they needed the name of the country from which they were derived. The Greeks and Roman who spread on our Southern parts of the country all the Fig trees which we find there.
Planted in a farm yard, this tree is respected by all the cattle that do not touch its leaves: the hens can get on the stems flexible, mobile, almost vertical to go to the fruit, and as the movement is constant in this court, the birds, which are very fond of figs, dare not stop it, so that was simultaneously a beautiful tree, keeping its long leaves that insects do focus point, and giving fruit as best they are harmless cold winds, they receive a greater mass of sunlight.
All difficult terrain on the choice of the fig is good everywhere, but when ii is a substantial ground, it rises higher, produces the finest fruit, live any longer; fresh soil, without being too close to water, it should be preferred. It is so vivid that when he was pulled for what little remains of roots, as minor as they are, it pushes the rod and it is not always in the year following the grubbing sometimes it is two years without giving discharges, but is surprised in the spring, to reappear, we overlap, and it still pushes doggedly until we have rooted out all the roots.
Its wood is very light yellow and soft, but wherever the trunk is large dimensions, it acquires in drying remarkable elasticity which is the opportunity to make use of screw press. The milky juice that contains wood, when young, is very caustic, corrosive skin; ancient medicine has used it, as ministers of the kitchen preparing the seasoning and rub meat which they wanted to print a delicious taste. It has even been used as rennet in cheese making. These uses are now fallen on disuse. This juice very abundant in the branches and buds, coagulates quickly exposed to the air, and becomes a mass having the appearance of wax. It has a bitter, astringent taste, it withdraws a soft resin, viscous immediately after extraction, which is not soluble in hot water or cold water, but only in boiling alcohol.