[1479] Rosenmuller, Bibl. Alterth., i. p. 285; Reynier, Écon. Publ. des Arabes et des Juifs, p. 470.
[1480] Forskal, Fl. Ægypto-Arab., p. 125. Lagarde (Revue Critique d’Histoire, Feb. 27, 1882) says that this Semitic name is very ancient.
[1481] Bretschneider, in Solms, ubi supra, p. 51.
[1482] Herodotus, i. 71.
[1483] Lenz, Botanik der Griechen, p. 421, quotes four lines of Homer. See also Hehn, Culturpflanzen, edit. 3, p. 84.
[1484] Hehn, Culturpflanzen, edit. 3, p. 513.
[1485] No importance should be attached to the exaggerated divisions made by Gasparini in Ficus carica, Linnæus. Botanists who have studied the fig tree since his time retain a single species, and name several varieties of the wild fig. The cultivated forms are numberless.
[1486] Gussone, Enum. Plant. Inarimensium, p. 301.
[1487] For the history of the fig tree and an account of the operation (of doubtful utility) which consists in planting insect-bearing Caprifici among the cultivated trees (caprification), see Solms’ work.
[1488] Pliny, Hist., lib. xv. cap. 18.