Note 1390 — Chapter II · GARDEN AND ORCHARD.

Cf. Athen. iii. 12. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 3. The fruit of the Egyptian sycamore, or Pharaoh’s fig-tree, was eaten in antiquity as now. Athenæus, who was a native of the Delta, says they used to rip open the skin of the fruit with an iron claw, and leave it thus upon the tree for three days. On the fourth it was eatable, and exhaled a very agreeable odour. Deipnosoph. ii. 36. Theophrastus adds, that a little oil was likewise poured on the fruit when opened by the iron. De Caus. Plant. i. 17. 9. ii. 8. 4. In Malta figs are still sometimes ripened by introducing a little olive oil into the eye of the fruit, or by puncturing it with a straw or feather dipped in oil. Napier, Excursions along the Shores of the Mediterranean, vol. ii. p. 144. Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 446.