50 Journal of the Mitchell Society [December 



ration of figs, the so-called 'mammae,' remain on the trees duiing the 

 winter and by the time they are ready to drop, there is already on the 

 trees a new or spring crop of fruit, known as the 'profichi.' By the 

 time that this crop is in proper condition, the insects that have hiber- 

 nated in the 'mammae,' are fully developed, the wingless and almost 

 blind male Blastophaga has fertilized the female before she is even out 

 of her cell, and the latter, leaving the dried-up fig by the small anterior 

 opening, makes its way into the new figs, to provide for a new genera- 

 tion. In the 'profichi' this generation matures at the time the com- 

 mercial Smyrna fig is in proper condition and the females, emerging 

 pollen covered from the 'profichi,' enter the small opening of this true 

 female flower receptacle if they find themselves in a tree bearing them. 

 But in this Smyrna covering all the female florets are fully developed, 

 and the gall-like swellings that replace them in the caprifigs are absent. 

 The insect therefore moves about over the entire interior surface of 

 the pouch, seeking a place to oviposit, and in the process distributes 

 its load of pollen everywhere. It eventually dies without reproducing, 

 and usually without even being able to make its way out again. But 

 though the insect has lost its life, the tree has gained; and the seed 

 pouch that we know as the fig, comes to maturity and ripens seed. 



"At the same time that the Smyrna fig which produces the edible 

 commercial fruit is in bloom, there is also another crop developing on 

 the caprifigs, and these are known as 'mammoni.' The Blastophaga 

 issuing from the 'profichi' on the same tree, naturally enter these 

 fruits Avhich are of the same character as the preceding crops, and are 

 able to continue their kind, coming to maturity when the third crop 

 is ready for their reception. This third crop represents the ' mammae ' 

 or over-wintering form, from which the 'profichi' of the following 

 season are again entered by the Blastophaga. 



"Here we have an extremely complicated relationship which, re- 

 duced to its simplest terms, means that in order to produce the com- 

 mercial Smyrna fig there must be suitable caprifigs producing 'pro- 

 fichi' infested by Blastophaga, at a period corresponding to the devel- 

 opment of the female flower capsule. And as the insects are very 

 small and very frail, the caprifigs must be either well distributed among 

 the Smyrna trees, or the infested 'profichi' must be gathered and dis- 

 tributed among the trees to be pollenized. 



"This account makes interesting reading and shows how, after 

 many trials and much painstaking investigation, the Blastophaga and 

 the necessary caprifigs were finally introduced into the fig-growing 



