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50 FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
T. Pacts And Fictions Co^Stceening Pigs....
The various members of the genus Ficus form a very strikingfeature in most tropical sceneryand travellers reckon the colossal
wild fig-trees of the torrid zone _, among the greatest blessings with which Providence has favored these burning climes , the shade of
their dense foliage affording an almost impervious shelter ; and the tenacity of life with which some members of the family are gifted
to a most remarkable extent , provides against the world being Ficus © asily Australis deprived lived of them and , grew for suspended it is recorded in the that air , a without specimen earth of ,
in one of the hothouses in the Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh for But eight while months fig-trees , without of every suffering kind any by apparent their powerful inconvenience propertie . s
whether for good or ill , have universally commanded the respect _^ should of mankind have , become it is a curious a circumstance for that indifference the name and of the be fruit - synonyrne gene
rallassociated -with very ideas of insolence and contempt , . When Shakespeare y ' s Charmian says , " 1 love long life better than figs , "
the expression only indicates how very much the lady really coveted of length the of days in which , _biit the its being scene thus is laid used —those is a " concession good old days to the , " when spirit
philosop age hers feasted on figs and conquerors contested for them ; and when the word occurs in other parts of his works it is always with
far other meaning , showing that though the fruit itself was at that time probably but a newly-arrived stranger in the countryyet it had
, The alread word y become not a familiar however practice always thus have to been take used its name in an ill in sense vain . may
when employed figurativel , y , , for in the case of the first collection of Satires in the English language , published anonymously in 1595 ,
under the name of " A Fig for Momus , " the title seems merely to imp that ly the an fig offering was rather to the held laug in hter horror -loving in thi god s country . Some , because have thoug looked ht
on as a sort of fellow to the stiletto , as a common means of murder contempt abroad ; whil simp e ly others because imag the ine fruit that itself the is word not generall became y p a leasing term to of
la which the jigue Eng is " lish quite is a taste general free , from perhaps mode acidity of because insult . To " in it make many is the the parts onl £ g , y " of however one Europe we , possess where "faire
consists figs distant themselves times in thrusting , thoug are held h the its thumb in ori hig g h in , inserted esteem seems , between and involved is traced two in obscurit closed back to fingers y rather . It ,
into the mouthand was once a common usage in this country also , but is now modified , into " ing the fingers" after having passed
throug in Romeo h the and transitionary Julietwhere snapp stage the quarr of " elling biting servants the thumb adop , " t alluded this mode to
of venting their angry , feelings towards each other . To show that thithumbbiting identical with " fi-making" Kniht quotes a
s -was g , g passage from Lodge ' s " Wit ' s Miserie : " u Behold , I see Contempt
marching forth , giving me the fico with his thumb in his mouth . "
50 Fruits In Their Season.
50 FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1861, page 50, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031861/page/50/
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