THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 93 



The effect of pollination is noticeable within two or three days 

 in the swelling and rapid development of the fig. 



The presence of the Blastophaga in the United States is 

 due to the efforts of George C. Roeding of Fresno. He planted 

 a garden of 60 acres of Smyrna trees and after 14 years of 

 effort, succeeded in producing these figs by artificial pollination. 

 This memorable event was in 1890, but ten years were to elapse 

 before he was able to grow them commercially with the aid of 

 the Blastophaga. It became evident to Mr. Roeding that there 

 must be a way in which the figs are pollinated naturally and he 

 set about solving the riddle. He found that the figs of com- 

 merce were produced principally in the Maeander valley about 

 forty miles from the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor where the 

 secret of growing this largest, sweetest and most valued fig of 

 all the Mediterranean countries was closely guarded, as it had 

 been for centuries. Mr. Roeding enlisted the co-operation of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture with the result 

 that the fig wasp was established at Fresno. Specimens of the 

 first commercially grown Smyrna figs from California were ex- 

 hibited at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. 

 The California Smyrnas are called Calimyrnas. Thousands 

 of acres of Smyrna trees have since been planted in the San 

 Joaquin valley, and in a few years the source of the perma- 

 nent supply of figs will swing from the Mediterranean East to 

 our Pacific West. 



The Blastophaga wasp is an almost microscopically small 

 insect. It is about one-twentieth of an inch in length with a 

 spread of wings twice its length. The male is wingless. The 

 caprifig bears three crops annually called respectively, the pro- 

 fichi, the mammoni, and the mamme. The mamme is the hold- 

 over crop and consists of a few scattered figs on the old wood. 

 These form late in the season and carry the generation of Blas- 

 tophagas over from one year to another. During this period, 

 the wasp is in the pupa stage in minute galls in the fig. With 



