7S4 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April 2, iSiJj. 



lives in the wild may enter the cultivated fruit, which they 

 think results in preventing the figs from faUing off, hastens 

 their maturity, and improves their taste. Count holms- 

 Lauhach begins by mentioning that already m ancient 

 times two distinct varieties of fig-trees were clearly dis- 

 tinituished, the fruit of the first of which is sweet, suc- 

 culent and eatable, that of the other remaming hard and 

 milky imtil it attains a very imperfect maturity, without 

 the least formation of sugai-, and then quickly dries up. 

 Count Solms-Laubach distinguishes the fir.st species by the 

 name of fig-tree, the other by the name of caprificus, or as 

 it is called in the Neapohtan dialect, "profico." The 

 caprificus (or wild fig-tree) usually bears fruit thrice, the 

 cultivated fig-tree twice a year. The caprificus in the in- 

 terior of its fig has both male and female flowers; the fig-tree 

 usuaUv only female. It is the female flowers of the capri- 

 ficus fig which contain the insects that serve fori the oper- 

 ation of caprification. Both the caprificus and the fig-tree are 

 obtamed f rom sowmg the seed of the cultivated fig ; but as 

 the quaUty in such cases is generaUy very bad, propagation 

 is exclusively carried on by shoots. The curious insects de- 

 veloped in the caprificus flowers, and caUed C,/,iipf 1 sencs by 

 Limiffius, but now named Blastophaga j,)-(-ss((/««(, were al- 

 ready known to the ancients as a means of capnficatiou. 

 These insects belong to the order of Hymenoptera^^ Ihe 

 females are winged, the males wingless lu Naples, 

 where the author made the greater part of his studies, the 

 wild figs produced at different seasons of the year are re- 

 spectively named "mamme," "profiehi," and "mamniom; 

 and it is from the fii-.st of these, the so-called mamme (which 

 are the earUest harvest of the caprificus and ripen in April), 

 that the msects which have wintered therem issue in spring 

 in order to lay theh eggs in the fruit of the secoud harvest, 

 the so-called profiehi, which ripen m June. ^ hen this has 

 taken place— a very few insects, thanks to then- great pro- 

 ductiveness, are able to fill numerous flowers mth then- eggs 

 —the mother insects die; m May the larvje, and in June the 

 perfect insects are formed, and meauwhde the truit ot the 

 third harvest, the so-caUed mammoni, which ripen ui August 

 and September, are ready to receive the female Blasto- 

 phagiB From these mammoni, finaUy, the brood wander.s 

 mto the mamme m order to winter, and thus the chain ol 

 events is completed, and in the foUowiug sprmg the laying 

 of eegs in profiehi is recommenced. Let us now see what 

 happens when the female Blastophagie, mstead of entermg 

 the figs of the caprificus, lay their eggs m those of the cult- 

 ivated fig-tree. The msects, indeed, perform the operation, 

 but are imable to lay their eggs in the proper place (for rea- 

 sons nhovm in the pamphlet, but too detailed to be men- 

 tioned here), and the progeny, therefore, never develops. 

 Nevertheless the entrance of the insects has a most import- 

 ant influence ; they carry with them into the fig with exclus- 

 ivelv female flowers the pollen of the male caprificus flowers, 

 and thus cause the formation ot seed. Our author describes 

 the Blastophaga as a small black insect issuing between the 

 scales of the ripe fruit in Jmie. Having arrived outside, it 

 suns and dries its whigs, and cleans its hany body wiHn " 

 feet to rid itself of the pollen which adheres to it so tliiclily 

 that it looks as if powdered. If one opens a wild hg at the 

 proper time, a large numberof these msects are seen running 

 about, evidently seeking to escape. The wmgle.ss and help- 

 less males are distinguished by a bright amber colour. 

 -When the insects penetrate the figs of the young pruhchi to 

 lay their eggs, they frequently lose their wings, so great ,s 

 the effort needed. Count Solms-Laubach often found whole 

 bunches of tom-off wmgs, where many females had eutereil 

 the same figs. They generaUy die after laying then eggs, 

 whUe seekmg their way out, Opmions are divided as to the 

 eflicacy of caprification. By some it is considered advant- 

 ageous, while others regard it as injurious. Count Solms- 

 Laubach gives his verdict as follows :— " Caprification is an 

 operation, traditionally preserved from generation to gener- 

 ation in the same form, which, once necessary, is now 

 scarcely useful, but the scientific importance of which as a 

 means of determining the changes experienced by our cult- 

 ivated plants in the course of years cannot be too highly 

 valued." 



After deciding the geogi-aphical extent of the cultiv- 

 ation of the fig-tree, the author calls attention to tlie curi- 

 ous fact that caprification is not always practised where 

 the insect is found. In Greece an.l its islands, ui Sicily 

 »ud Naples, in Southern Spain and I'ortugal, in >)orth 



Africa and Syi-ia, and Asia Minor, it is generaUy intro- 

 duced ; but is not practised in middle and North Italy, 

 the Tyrol, Sardinia, Corsica, the South of France, Northern 

 Spam, the Canaries and Azores, nor m Egypt. Fossil re- 

 mains prove that the Ficvs carica was spread over the 

 whole 'Western portion of our present civihzed world in 

 pre-historic times, and that it existed also in Greece and 

 in Asia Minor cannot be doubted, in spite of insufficient 

 proof. In France the cjuaternary lUstrict in which it 

 existed exceeded in extent the present district of cultivation. 

 The author believes, with Lloyd, that the fig-tree had 

 died out in the whole of the 'Western world, and was 

 only reintroduced in the progress of civilization. He finds 

 the different species so similar that a common origin can- 

 not be doubted. Western Asia and North Africa are named 

 as the fatherland of this origin, but without sufficient 

 proof. The author conies to the conclusion that the fig-tree 

 had an equatorial fatherland, m contrast to the circunipolar 

 fatherland of the vine, and finds the most favourable 

 conditions forsuch an origin in the Punjaub, Beluchistan, and 

 South Persia, as well as in the border terraces of Abyssmia. 

 From the cu-cunistance that probably the invention of capri- 

 fication will have gone hand-in-hand with the domestic- 

 ation of the fig-tree, and that the former operation is 

 carried on now exactly as it was ui ancient times, and 

 also because the nation which invented caprification must 

 have been tolerably far advanced in civilization, the author 

 believes that the cultivation of the fig-tree commenced at a 

 single point, and thence spread to the rest of the wor d. 

 To which nation, then, do we owe \Vf It is proved by 

 ancient authors that the domestication of the fig-tree 

 was known in Greece in the ninth century, n.c. The Bible, 

 and especiaUy the Semitic name of " ti'n, " a word belong- 

 ing to the dialect of the Bahra race, leads us to Arabia 

 as the mother-land of domestication and thence probably 

 it spread to the Semitic peoples ot Syria. These commercial 

 nations having once po.ssessed the tree, it was natural 

 that its cultivation should spread. The Greeks will have 

 received it from the Phieuicians, as probably also will 

 North Africa, Southern Portugal, and Spam, Sicily and 

 Malta; aud many facts speak for such a direct intro- 

 duction In Italy we find the curious cn-cunistance that 

 caprification is practised in the south, but not m the north. 

 The contrast was so great that even in the eighteenth 

 century the North ItiiUans were not aware that their 

 southern countrymen made u.se of caprification. Count 

 Solms-Laubach comes to' the very interestmg conclusion 

 that the Romans received the fig-tree duect from the 

 Phcenicians (of which the name Ficus is cited as a proof), 

 but only the tree and not the practice of caprification 

 was known to the Semitic races ; while caprification was 

 independently introduced into South Italy by the coloniz- 

 ing Greeks. The last chapter of the pamphlet is devoted 

 to a short study on the .sycamore (Sycamovm antiqmvum, 

 Miq ) to which the author's attention was drawn by the 

 many analogies between that tree (in the fruit of which 

 similar insects are found) and the fig-tree.— /';»(r»i«ccii(((«( 

 Jonn}<d. 



JUDICIOUS PKUNIN6. 

 Mr AViUiam McCoripiodale, Scone, read 

 the annual meetiuK "f the Arboriculture 



a jntper [at 

 Society] on 



Judicious I'ruuiiig moie especiaUy applicable to O: k 

 Plantations." He said:— ,^ , ^i j. ,, 



It is, however, much to be regretted that there are 

 so many conflicting opinions on this subject. Some authors 

 strongly recommeud the advantages of skilful pruning; 

 and others po.sitively deny that any advantage will accrue 

 from even judicious pruning. , , , 



In the English Crown Forests pruniug was abiiiulonea 

 .some thirty years ago ; and. foUowiug that example, the 

 same result has since taken place on many private pro- 

 uerties in both England ami Scotland. 



Some theorists declare that there is such a direct 

 subsistence between the roots and branches that when 

 a Uve branch is removed, all the corresponding roots support- 

 ing that branch wiU imme.hately thereafter cease to 

 perform their functions and will die. 



I well remember, nearly forty years ago, having a very 

 interesting conversation with an able arboricultui-ist on 

 the subject of pruning, when he substantially denied that 

 the ait of primuigiu any shape or form woiUd do good. 



