Fig Varieties: A Monograph - uri=ucce.ucdavis

February, 1955] Condit: Fig Varieties
373
climatic influences. The fig described and illustrated in color by Carbon (1865a) as Figue
Blanche à Peau Verte may be the same variety.
Other accounts of this fig as Blanche, Blanche d’Argenteuil, Blanche Ronde, or Grosse
Blanche Ronde are by Merlet (1667), Liger (1702), Weston (1770), Knoop (1771), La
Brousse (1774), Rozier (1781—1805); Mirbel (1802—1806), Lamarck (1783—1817), Bory
de Saint Vincent (1824), Noisette (1821, 1829), Couverchel (1839), Poiteau (1838—1846),
Dochnahl (1855), Duchartre (1857), Forney (1863), Lhérault (1872), Simon-Louis (1895),
Schneider (1902), Juignet (1909), Nomblot (1913), Mazières (1920), Leclerc (1925), Société
Nationale d'Horticulture de France (1928), A. Rivière (1928), G. Rivière (1930), Delplace
(1933), Delbard (1947), and Simonet et al. (1945). Figue Royale was described by
Bernard (1787), Duhamel (1809), Bory de Saint Vincent (1824), and Noisette (1829), with
Versailles as a synonym. On the other hand, it was described as Versailles, with or
without the synonym Royale, by Couverchel (1839), Duchartre (1857), Du Breuil (1876),
Hogg (1866), Soc. Pomol. de France (1887, 1947), Barron (1891), Eisen (1901), Bois (1928),
Blin (1942), and Evreinoff (1947). Eisen regarded Blanche and Versailles as distinct, but
later authors, such as Nomblot, Soc. Nat. d’Hort. de France (1928), and Simonet et al.,
treat them as the same variety. See Rolland (1914) for synonymy.
Descriptions of this variety as White Marseilles are given by Brookshaw (1812),
Baxter (1820), Sawyer (1824), Lindley (1831), Rogers (1834), Holley (1854), M’Intosh
(1855), Thompson (1859), Hogg (1866), G. S. (1867, 1869), Barron (1868c, 1891), Rivers
(1873), Coleman (1887b), Lelong (1890), Wythes (1890a), Massey (1893), Burnette (1894),
Wright (1895), Forrer (1894), Eisen (1885, 1897, 1901), Thomas (1902), Ward (1904),
Starnes (1903, 1907), Royal Hort. Society (1916), B. A. Bunyard (1925, 1934), Cook (1925),
Arnold (1926), Fruit-Grower (1936), Condit (1947), and Preston (1951). Illustrations in
color are by Duhamel (1809), Brookshaw (1812), Noisette (1821), and Wright (1895).
Illustrations in black and white are by Poiteau, Eisen (1901, fig. 75), Bois, Société’
Nationale d’Horticulture de France, Starnes, Bunyard (1934), Simonet, and Condit
(1941a, fig. 2, E).
The name White Marseilles became attached to a fig that Brookshaw described and
illustrated in color in 1812 of fruit gathered by himself from the original tree at the
Archbishop of Canterbury’s palace at Lambeth. This tree was generally believed to
have been planted by Cardinal Pole during the reign of Henry the Eighth. Another
account, that of Baxter (1820), stated that a fig tree at Oxford was introduced by a Mr.
Pocock, hence the name Pocock’s fig; fruit exhibited on August 17, 1819, proved to be
that of the White Marseilles. John Wright (1895) referred to a large tree of White
Marseilles with a trunk 6 feet 9 inches in circumference 2 feet above the ground.
Sawyer, in 1824, reported that the fig he named Ford’s Seedling was sometimes called
the Pocock, but was more properly designated White Marseilles. Various authors,
including Lindley, Thompson, and Hogg, described White Marseilles, with Figue
Blanche as a synonym. The description and illustration by Eisen in 1901 of Marseillaise
White are regarded here as properly referring to Blanche. White Genoa, as pointed