35 



could be fertilized. Two eminent botanists on the 

 Continent, Pontedeni and Tournefort, have investigated 

 this subject, and the result of their investigation is, 

 that a very small kind of gnat, of a black colour, no 

 where to be seen but about these trees, makes a punc- 

 ture into the figs at the time of their flowering to de- 

 posit their eggs, and in passing from one tree to 

 another to perform this office they carry with them 

 the dust of the antherae, and thus communicate the 

 fertilizing principle to the stigma of the cultivated fig. 



In the Levant, where attention to the cultivation 

 of the fig is of the utmost importance to the natives, 

 as well for food as for traffic, the peasants, during the 

 months of June and July, take these wild figs, at the 

 time their gnats are ready to break out of them, to 

 their garden fig trees ; and every morning make an 

 inspection, and transfer only such wild figs, which 

 they call Orni, as are well conditioned for that pur- 

 pose. Tournefort says, * he was surprised at the pa- 

 tience of the Greeks in busying themselves for the 

 space of two months in carrying these gnats from tree 

 to tree ; but to satisfy his curiosity he was told that one 

 of these fig trees under their management usually pro- 

 duced between two and three hundred pounds of figs, 

 while those of Provence seldom produced more than 

 twenty-five pounds. 



In England figs are brought to maturity for the 

 table without the assistance of the wild fig 5 but the 

 fruit must be distinguished from the seed, which 

 alone is necessary to the reproduction of the plant. 



