URTICIFLOR^:. 



355 



shaped, fleshy, but hollow axis, on the interior surface of which the 

 flowers are situated (Fig. 345). It is a kind of capitulum, with 

 a hollow receptacle, whose " involucral " leases close over the 

 entrance to the interior ; it is not, however, a simple capitulum, 

 but a coalescence of cymose inflorescences. The edible parts are 

 the fleshy stem-portion and perianth-leaves. The <$ -flower 

 has a 2-6 divided perianth, 1-2 (-6) stamens ; the ? -flower 

 has an oblique ovary. The fruits are drupes, with thin flesh. 

 Many species have aerial roots, and some live as epiphytes on trees. 

 POLLINATION, in the edible Fig, is effected by a small Gall-wasp (Cynips 

 psenes L.), which lays its eggs in the Fig, and hence carries the pollen away. 

 Even in very ancient times it was 

 customary to hang infected wild Figs 

 on the branches of cultivated ones, so 

 that the young Gall-wasps, as they 

 emerged, could immediately effect 

 the pollination (caprification). Ficus 

 carica, and other species, have two kinds 

 of ? -flowers, besides the $ -flowers. 

 One kind has a short style and no stig- 

 niatic hairs, and it is only in the ovaries 

 of these that the wasps lay their eggs 

 (gall-flowers) ; the other kind has a long 

 style and well-developed stigmatic-hairs, 

 but the wasps cannot reach their ovaries 

 these are "seed-flowers." There are, 

 moreover, two kinds of plants of Ficus 

 carica ; $ -plants, which have only seed- 

 flowers, and bear the edible Figs, and 

 <? -plants (called " Caprificus "), which 

 bear inedible fruits, and have $ -flowers 



at the upper part of the Fig, but gall- 



mu /-i -c FIG. 345. A Fier in longitudinal section. 



flowers at the base. [The Caprificus, at 



Naples, bears three crops of inedible Figs each year, viz. Mamme (April), Pro- 

 fichi (June), Mammoni (August). The $ -flowers are produced especially in June, 

 the first Figs being almost entirely $ , and the last having but few $ -flowers. 

 Each crop produces a new generation of Fig-wasps. The female wasp enters 

 the Figs on the Caprificus, and lays one egg in each flower, with the result that 

 the flower developes into a kind of gall. The mother-wasp dies within the Fig. 

 The male wasp is wingless ; it bites a small passage into the ovaries containing 

 the female wasps, and impregnates them ; the female wasps theu escape from 

 the Fig, those in the Proficlii carrying pollen away with them as they pass out. 

 They then enter another Fig, lay their eggs, and die. The edible Fig-tree 

 similarly has three crops in the year, Fiori di Jico, Pedajnuali, Gimaruoli. 

 The wasps, entering these Figs, are unable to lay their eggs in the ovary, but, 

 nevertheless, they effect cross-pollination on entering the Pedagnuoli, which' 

 bear fertile seeds.] 



