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A Text About Figs

"Between the Cretaceous and Tertiary, 65 million years ago, there was a wealth of vascular plants. In the Tertiary (Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene) predominated in the land extraordinarily warm weather uniform. For that reason stand out, among others, Morac (Ficus). These tropical flowers that are now coming to the Arctic region of Alaska and Greenland (Strasburger, 1986)."

This is the first paragraph.  Can you guess what this is?  I'll give you a hint: I typed it through Google Translate.

I'll keep posting a paragraph a day until someone figures it out.
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Paragraph 2


"According to Russian scientist Nicholas Ivanovic Vavilov (1951), the fig is native to the center of the Middle East, including the interior of Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Iran and Turkmenistan lands. Other researchers, from Candolle (1883) to Jawkoski (1964), agree to say that one of the most important sources of fruit is in the Central Asia, as the case of pomegranate, cherry trees, the almond, etc. (Sanchez Monge, 1974)."
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Paragraph 3


"Condit (1947) and Storey (1975) explain how in south-eastern Arabia it is possible to find forms of wild fig and caprifig."

And because it's so short...

Paragraph 4

"The archaeobotanical Israeli Ofer Bar-Yosef and his colleagues from Bar-Ilan University in Israel studied archaeological remains of nine carbonized figs in very good condition, from Gigal 1, one of the oldest Neolithic sites, located 12 km from Jericho in the Jordan Valley."
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Merry Christmas!


Paragraph 5

"The conclusion was that the first clearly domesticated figs discovered date from 11,400 years ago. They were stored with acorns and wild oat and barley varieties, which to understand the survival strategy of the early Neolithic farmers was the joint exploitation of wild plants and initial fig domestication."
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Paragraph 6


"According to archaeobotanist Mordechai Kislev, the first Neolithic settlers of the Middle East had to grow figs for centuries, making them mutate and selecting them according to the most appropriate characteristics."
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Paragraph 7


"From the Middle East and southern Arabia, through Syria, the fig spread on the routes of the Mediterranean and was brought to the Western world.  Zohary and Hopt (2000), as proof of this fact, announced the discovery of traces of fig seeds in various areas of the eastern Mediterranean from the Neolithic period (7800-6600 BC).  From the Bronze Age were also traces of fig seeds in the Dead Sea basin (Hopt, 1983) and at Bab edh-Dhra (McCreevr, 1979).  In addition to the remains found, several written references reinforce the hypothesis of the beginning of fig cultivation in some areas of the eastern Mediterranean (Darby et al. 1977; Janick, 1979)."
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Paragraph 8


"The botanical beginning of the fig tree occurred through a natural process of crosses and adaptations that gave life to new forms, even in the wild, which came into contact with man in its evolutionary stage, and promoted both geographical expansion along with a biological diversification. Thus, over time, there formed many varieties of fig trees, over a thousand have been studied in the world and more than 160 on the Islands."

I'm surprised no one has figured this out yet.  This paragraph gives a big clue as to what this is.
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I've tried to figure it out several times based on the references and names using Google every tome you post a new segment with zero luck. Don't want you to think nobody is playing along, I just haven't had any luck!
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Paragraph 9


"After these remarks try to answer the question: why so many varieties of fig?  The direct reply is because the species forms hybrids, mutates and evolves, and the farmer takes advantage by empirically selecting each variety, preserving and spreading the offspring (graftings, cuttings, murgons [suckers?], etc.) for their needs."

Jason, I don't think that you'll find this text on the internet.  It is a book, and I know that other fig collectors on these forums have read it, although they probably just looked at the pictures because the language is uncommon and not too many people know it.  That's why I have to use Google Translate and my knowledge of Spanish and French to render it into English.
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Paragraph 10


"It is the mystery of the species, of the varieties, that ink has run for scientists and laymen in the course of history because they believed and fiercely defended that plant varieties were fixed, unable to be changed, as they were were created.  It took force of strength to show the error of this concept, and it contributed very much to Darwinian evolution and genetics."

This is the final paragraph of the first section of the introduction to this book.

Tomorrow I'll announce what book this is.
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Here's the answer: Les Figueres A Les Illes Balears (The Fig Trees of the Balearic Islands) by Montserrat Pons i Boscana.  This book is packed with information about fig growing.  The Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, etc.) are one of the richest and most diverse fig growing regions in the world.  I only wish that I read Catalan so that I could extract more of the knowledge contained in this book.  The photographs are excellent and it contains a ton of info on each variety that it covers.
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Well, here it is (courtesy of Bass):
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4468317&trail=
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