"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
k...
The message
from beccabunga contains these
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'Rusty_Hinge[_2_ Wrote:
;829051']The message
from Sacha contains these words:
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Thanks, Bob. I read about it, too and the history is certainly
interesting.
Unfortunately, the would-be customer doesn't want the seeds, he wants
an
actual tree and going by his name and the enquiry combined, I think
it
probable he's a Buddhist himself. I think he has probably exhausted
all the
UK possibilities and will have to look abroad.-
If it's not a matter of jam yesterday, perhaps he would contemplate an
offer to cultivate one from seed for him?
/sig and separator removed/
Or perhaps contact the various botanic gardens which have tropical
houses and see if anyone can do an offset for him. I hope he has a VERY
LARGE heated conservatory to house it.
Is the fruit edible/useful?
No, I think the figs themselves are very small, the size of peas.
Apparently they're used to make bangles in India and Sri Lanka. The tree is
practically of no economic, and of little ornamental, value. Except by
Buddhists, who revere the tree to the extent that when the seeds
spontaneously sprout in the crevices of building and become a nuisance, a
non-Buddhist must be found to remove the offending plant. There is or was a
tree at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka that was brought as a young plant from India
in 288 B.C. and was still alive in the late 1960's.
someone