DR. G. KING ON THE GENUS FICUS. 35 
liarities in the nature of the stigma and the shortness of the style 
are apparent in the gall-flowers of many species from a very 
early stage. There are, however, many species of Ficus (more 
especially in the group Urostigma), in which the gall and fertile 
female flowers are not characterized by any marked differences 
in the form of style and stigma, and it it only by cutting the 
ovaries open that the two can be distinguished. 
Now there is probably nothing in itself very remarkable in 
the mere occurrence in the genus of numerous flowers having 
the general form of females, which yet, by reason of certain 
peculiarities in their structure, are incapable of fertilization by 
pollen and are practically barren, while at the same time their 
very structural defects fit them for becoming the nidus for the 
larvee of special insects. But when the manner in which these 
maiformed female flowers are disposed in the receptacles is in- 
quired into, it becomes clear that through the interposition of 
insects these malformed females may play a most important part 
in the life-history of many species of the genus. In all the 
species, except those included in the section Urostigma, the gall- 
flowers occupy the same receptacles as the males, while the fertile 
female flowers occupy different receptacles. In other words, the 
majority of the species have two distinct sets of receptacles—one 
set containing male and gall-flowers, but no fertile female flowers; 
and another set containing only fertile female flowers without 
any trace of either male or gall-flowers. The proportion of males 
to gall-flowers in receptacles of the former kiud varies. In all 
(excepting the Urostigmas just mentioned) it is the rule to find 
the males confined to a zone of greater or less width at the apex 
of the receptacle just under the scales which close its mouth. 
Sometimes this zone is very narrow indeed, and consists ot only 
a single row of male flowers, and that row not always a complete 
one, the remaining part of the interior of the receptacle being 
occupied by gall-flowers. In by far the majority of cases these 
two kinds of receptacles, so physiologically distinct, are undis- 
tinguishable by external characters, and they are both borne by 
the same individual plant. They look exactly alike until one cutg 
them open and examines their contents. The most notorious of 
the few exceptions to this rule is the common eatable Fig (Ficus 
Carica), in which species the male and gall-flowers occupy glo- 
bular receptacles borne in one set of individual trees, while the 
fertile female flowers occupy more or less elongated receptacles 
D2 
