FICUS, Linn.
Flowers unisexual (staminiferous, pistiliferous, or gall), or pseudo-hermaphrodite, rarely asexual, collected in various ways on more or less globose ovoid or pyriform concave receptacles which are closed at the apex by numerous bracteoles. Male flowers with 1, 2, or rarely 3 exserted or included ovate or oblong stamens, without rudimentary pistil (except in Paleomorphe), the perianth of 2 to 6 distinct pieces, or gamophyllous and 2- to 6-partite, or absent. Fertile female flowers with a single pistil and without rudimentary stamens, the ovary 1-celled with 1 pendulous ovule, the style more or less lateral, longer than the ovary and surmounted by the clavate cylindric peltate or bifid stigma, the perianth of 2 to 6 distinet pieces, or gamophyllous 2- to 6-partite, or absent; achenes more or less obovoid or remform, rarely globular, with a minutely tuberculate or undulate hard pericarp, often with a glairy or mucilaginous outer coat; the seed pendulous, with small albumen, the embryo more or less curved. Gall flowers similar to the fertile females, but not containing embryos, and often occupied by the pupa of a species of Blustophaga or other Hymenopterous insect; the ovary ovoid or globular, its pericarp thin and membranous, or thick, brittle, and crustaceous ; the style shorter than in the fertile female, often dilated above into a more or less trumpet- shaped false stigma. Neuter flowers (occurring only in section Syneeia) pedicillate with perianth like the males, asexual. Male, gall and fertile female flowers collected on the same receptacle; or males and galls on a distinct set of receptacles, fertile females and neuters on another set: or males and galls on one set of receptacles and fertile females on a distinct set; flowers often mixed with scales or hairs. Receptacles usually homo- rarely di-morphous, closed at the mouth by numerous scales arranged in rows, the uppermost of which often partly project externally and form an umbilicus; the base rounded or narrowed and usually subtended by three bracts, sessile or pedunculate, in pairs in the axils of the leaves or of the scars of fallen leaves, solitary by abortion, or in fascicles from tubercles (shortened branchlets) from the main branches or stem, or on long subaphyllous branches proceeding from the stem near its base. Trees or shrubs with milky juice ; leaves alternate, rarely opposite, stipulate, entire, serrate, dentate, or lobed ; smooth, hairy, or scabrid ; the leaf-buds sometimes covered by deciduous leaf-scales.
CONSPECTUS OF THE SECTIONS OF THE GENUS.
I. Paleomorphe.—Male flowers with 1 stamen and a rudimentary pistil occupying the
