Fig Varieties: A Monograph - uri=ucce.ucdavis

February, 1955] Condit: Fig Varieties
465
stalk often prominently swollen; surface glossy, with conspicuous white flecks; eye
above medium; upper half of body purplish black, lower half green, with violet ribs;
pulp strawberry, coarse.
Second-crop figs above medium, oblate-spherical to turbinate; neck mostly absent;
average weight 56 grams; ribs prominent, on account of earlier coloration than body;
eye above medium; color Dusky Slate Violet (Ridgway, 1912); pulp light strawberry to
almost amber; texture gelatinous; flavor sweet, fairly rich; quality fair. (Plate 26, B.)
Caprified figs with dark-strawberry pulp; otherwise, much the same as uncaprified
fruit.
Rubado Negro (syns. Roubauda Negra, Ficus carica serotina Risso). The description
by Risso (1826) did not list any common name for this variety. Sauvaigo (1889) gave
the name as Roubauda Negra, and Eisen (1901) as Rubado Negro. It may be the same
one which Porta (1583) referred to as serotina, a late fig with hard skin. No later
accounts can be found. The term serotina signifies “late”; the three authors agree that
this variety produces a crop late in the season—October and November—in southern
France and northern Italy.
Second-crop figs are above medium, 2-1/4 inches in diameter, turbinate; eye with
reddish-brown iris; skin firm or hard, dark brown to black in color; pulp red.
Saint-Esprit. Described by Garidel (1715), Rozier (1805), Duhamel (1809), Lamarck
(1817), Risso (1826, as Ficus carica spiritus-sancti), Noisette (1829), Couverchel (1839),
Duchartre (1857), Du Breuil (1876), and Eisen (1888, 1901). This variety is reported as
commonly grown in the vicinity of Pont Saint-Esprit, France, hence the name.
The tree bears two crops of figs that are inferior in quality. Second-crop figs large,
pyriform; stalk long; skin checking, adherent to the meat, dark violet in color; pulp light
red; flavor insipid.
Saint Jean (syns. Grisé de Saint Jean, Saint Jean Gris, Grisé, Grisé Savantine Bifère,
Grisé Madeleine, Grosse Grisé Bifère, Ficus carica grisea Risso). Described by Liger
(1702), Knoop (1771), La Brousse (1774), Risso (1826), Barron (1891), Colby (1894), Eisen
(1888, 1901), Stubenrauch (1903), Starnes and Monroe (1907), and Condit (1947).
Figured in black and white by Eisen and Starnes; shown in color by Condit (1941a). See
comments (next page) on the name Grisé. According to La Brousse, Figue Grisé
matures the first crop in June at Saint-Jean, although he did not specify the exact
location of this French town. The fruits of Saint Jean, as grown in California, are of
medium size or above in the first crop, and small to below medium in the second crop.
The variety described under the same name by Eisen as having very large figs may be a
different one. Saint Jean is listed by Simonet et al. (1945) as a synonym of Cotignana,
which is described in this monograph under Observantine.
The following accessions to California plots of fig varieties have proved to be
identical in tree growth and fruit production: P.I. No. 18,865, Grisé Savantine Bifère, in
the Chiswick collection from England; No. 69,015, Grisé de Saint Jean, from a French
nursery in 1926; No. 86,806, Grisé Madeleine, from Yalta, Crimea, in 1931; also
No. 102,011, Saint Jean, and No. 102,014, Grosse Grisé Bifère, both from Marrakech