FIG * FICUS

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• The fig, the India rubber plant, the banyan tree and the creeping fig of conservatory walls belong to this vast and natural genus, which has over 600 species scattered through the warmer regions of the world.
   
• Ficus has no near ally of garden value. It is a genus of trees or shrubs, often climbers, with milky juice.
   
• The most important ornamental plant in the genus is the India rubber plant, which ranks among the most popular foliage plants for home use indoors.
   
• The creeping fig, Ficus pumila, better known as Ficus ripens or Ficus stipulata, is one of the most common and best climbers for covering walls. It clings close and makes a dense mat of foliage, which is about as dark in color as English ivy.
   
• Among the many wonders of the genus Ficus are the epiphytal habit of some, the huge spread of the banyan tree. It sends down some of its branches (or aerial roots) into the soil, these take root, make new trunks, and eventually produce a great forest, in which it is impossible to tell the original trunk.
   
• Soils best adapted to the growing of the fig are clay soil, or heavy soils, which are or may be kept uniformly moist. No greater mistake can be made than to attempt the culture of the fig in light sandy soils, more or less deficient in moisture. Under these conditions, the nematode (root-knot) works serious damage to the roots of the trees and the planting soon dies out. On heavy soil, the nematodes are not able to work such heavy damage and the fig thrives in spite of their limited attacks. The shaded condition of the soil is also beneficial.