THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 95 



of the female wasp as she frantically struggles to enter the fig. 

 Once inside she does not emerge again but having pollinated 

 the flowers, she is absorbed by the fruit. While a single wasp 

 is considered enough to pollinate a single fruit, several wasps 

 are often found within a fig. The male was]) never leaves the 

 fig in which it is hatched and the female is short lived unless 

 she finds her way into a fig. Eighty percent die within five 

 hours, and all within ten hours after emerging. Within the 

 fig the life may extend over several days. 



In Mr. Markarian's orchard are single trees which yield 

 as high as 500 pounds of dried Smyrna figs a season, due to 

 the thorough carprification. The price of Smyrna figs, whole- 

 sale, in 1018 is 20 cents a pound, of the white figs 15 cents, 

 while the black figs bring 11 cents in the Fresno market. The 

 fig tree has few or no diseases. It responds to good cultiva- 

 tion and calls for the same attention that any other crop re- 

 quires to be profitable. 



[Readers unfamiliar with the structure of the fig fruit, 

 may be interested in knowing that it is really a transformed 

 and hollow branch with a large number of very minute flowers 

 inside it. Notwithstanding the differences that exist between the 

 caprifig and the Smyrna fig", they are merely different forms of 

 one and the same species. It is probable that the edible form is 

 the result of selection for ages during which it has been br tight 

 to such difference in form and flavor as to be valuable, but the 

 fig wasp, having been born and bred in the wild species, con- 

 tinues to favor it. The hold-over crop of the caprifig has 

 staminate and gall flowers, the latter harboring the fig wasp. 

 The spring crop of the caprifig has staminate, carpellate and 

 gall flowers, but the Smyrna fig has only corpellate flowers. 

 —En.] 



