Figs are dried either by a furnace or in the sun, after having been dipped in a scalding ley made of the ashes of the fig-tree. In this state they are used both in medicine, and as food; and are considered more wholesome and more easy of digestion than when fresh. They form a considerable branch of commerce, and are exported, in boxes of different size and shape, to nearly all the northern parts of Europe. When we receive them, their surface is usually covered with a saccharine matter which has exuded from the fruit. A small and cheap kind of fig is imported in small frails or baskets from Faro. There are numerous varieties of the fig, but the common purple kind is the hardiest of the whole. This is frequently cultivated in our gardens; and, if screened from the north-east winds, it ripens, even: with us, in tolerable perfection. The wood of the fig-tree is of spongy texture, and, when charged with oil and emery, is much used on the Continent by locksmiths, gun-smiths, and other artificers in iron and steel, to polish their work. It is almost indestructible, and on this account was formerly employed in eastern countries as coffins for embalmed bodies. ---- CLASS XXIV.--CRYPTOGAMIA. ---- 280. _FERN, or BRAKE_ (Pteris aquilina), _is a well-known cryptogamous plant, which grows wild on heaths, in woods, and in barren places._ Though this plant is an extremely troublesome weed to the farmer, from the roots penetrating deep into the ground, it is applied to various uses in rural oeconomy. When cut and properly dried, it serves as litter for horses and cattle; and it supplies the place of thatch for covering the roofs of cottages and stacks. Where coal is scarce, it is used for the heating of ovens and burning of lime-stone. The _ashes_ of fern, from their yielding a tolerably pure alkali, are frequently used by manufacturers of glass, particularly in France. And, in some parts of our own country, the poor people mix these ashes with water, and form them into round masses which they call _fern balls_. These are afterwards heated in a fire, and then, with water, are made into a ley for the scouring of linen. They thus furnish a cheap substitute for soap. Swine are fond of the roots of fern, and will feed freely upon them. We are even informed that, with the inhabitants of Palma, one of the Canary islands, they are sometimes made to supply the place of bread. It is deserving of remark that, when the root of the fern is cut obliquely across, it presents a kind of figure of the Imperial or Russian eagle; from which circumstance Linnæus was induced to name it _Pteris aquilina_, or "Eagle brake." 281. _The_ LICHENS _constitute a very numerous family of plants, which grow on the bark of trees, on rocks, stones, and other substances; and have an indistinct fructification, in scattered wart-like tubercles, or excrescences, and smooth saucers or shields, in which the seeds are imbedded._