Practical Fig Culture in Arizona 27 



that the Capri figs bear gall and staminate, while the Cordelia figs 

 is characterized by the presence of pistillate and staminate flowers. 



(II) The nonpollen producing forms include three varieties — • 

 the Smyrna, vSan Pedro, and Adriatic. The further subdivisions of 

 these groups permit the following arrangement: 



Smyrna — ^producing mainly pistillate flowers, all crops. 



San Pedro — producing both mule (first crop) and pistillate 

 (second crop) flowers. 



Adriatic^ — producing mainly mule flowers, all crops. 



New type of fig. — ^A new type of fig grown from seed is described 

 by vSwingle' as " . . . a sort of hermaphrodite tree that had enough 

 of the qualities of a Capri fig to support the Blastophaga and enough 

 of those of the fertile tree to produce an abundant crop of summer 

 generative buds just as the spring generation Capri figs were ripen- 

 ing. It also bears numerous fertile seeds mingled with insect- 

 bearing galls. By planting this variety among other Capri figs the 

 Blastophaga will be al)le to breed uninterruptedly throughout the 

 year and not, as is now the case, almost completely die out in mid- 

 summer." 



Characteristics of varieties. — -There are five varieties of Fictis 

 carica, as explained on an earlier page. 



The Capri fig (Ficus carica var. silvestris) is a wild fig that has 

 been brought under cultivation. There are about thirty forms 

 grown in California and the Southwest. The fruit produced by this 

 group can not be considered edible. One, two, or three crops of fruit 

 are produced each year. 



There are two forms of Capri figs, the pistillate and the stam- 

 inate. Ths pistillate form is very rare and needs only brief mention. 

 It is perhaps the parent form of the Smyrna group. The staminate 

 form is the more important since it is the host for the fig wasp 

 and produces the pollen for use in the caprification of pistillate figs. 



The three crops produced by the Capri figs show marked differ- 

 ences in structure. These crops are known as the mamme, profichi, 

 and mammoni. The mamme, or first crop, forms in the fall and 

 matures in early summer about the same time that the brebas, or 

 first crop of edible figs, ripens. In this crop the syconus is only 

 provided with gall flowers, possibly a^few pistillate ones, yet no 

 seeds are matured; the staminate flowers are absent or very rare, 

 hence no pollen is produced by this crop. The sole office of the 

 crop, therefore, is to carry the fig wasp through the winter. The 

 ■crop matures on the wood of the pre vious season. 



*The Fig in Ca.ifornia Separate. California State Commission of Horticulture, p. 8. 



