Of all the remaining fruits that are included under the name of “pomes,” the fig[1877] is the largest: some, indeed, equal the pear, even, in size. We have already mentioned, while treating of the exotic fruits, the miraculous productions of Egypt and Cyprus[1878] in the way of figs. The fig of Mount Ida[1879] is red, and the size of an olive, rounder however, and like a medlar in flavour; they give it the name of Alexandrian in those parts. The stem is a cubit in thickness; it is branchy, has a tough, pliant wood, is entirely destitute of all milky juice,[1880] and has a green bark, and leaves like those of the linden tree, but soft to the touch. Onesicritus states that in Hyrcania the figs are much sweeter than with us, and that the trees are more prolific, seeing that a single tree will bear as much as two hundred and seventy modii[1881] of fruit. The fig has been introduced into Italy from other countries, Chalcis and Chios, for instance, the varieties being very numerous: there are those from Lydia also, which are of a purple colour, and the kind known as the “mamillana,”[1882] which is very similar to the Lydian. The callistruthiæ are very little superior to the last in flavour; they are the coldest by nature of all the figs. As to the African fig, by many people preferred to any other, it has been made the subject of very considerable discussion, as it is a kind that has been introduced very recently into Africa, though it bears the name of that country. As to the fig of Alexandria,[1883] it is a black variety, with the cleft inclining to white; it has had the name given to it of the “delicate”[1884] fig: the Rhodian fig, too, and the Tiburtine,[1885] one of the early kinds, are black. Some of them, again, bear the name of the persons who were the first to introduce them, such, for instance, as the Livian[1886] and the Pompeian[1887] figs: this last variety is the best for drying in the sun and keeping for use, from year to year; the same is the case, too, with the marisca,[1888] and the kind which has a leaf spotted all over like the reed.[1889] There is also the Herculanean fig, the albicerata,[1890] and the white aratia, a very large variety, with an extremely diminutive stalk.