ON THE CAPKIFICATION OF THE FIG. 199 



long after the female flowers, and its anthers never opened, so 

 that any one miglit conclude tliat if there were no fertile seeds it 

 was for want of fecundation. What is surprising is the fact that 

 in the late figs ttie embryo is produced especially in the peda- 

 gnuoLi (at the base of the branches), and in hot situations, wliether 

 the tree be caprified or not. The white fig, the Dottato, and 

 others which the Neapolitans do not caprify, produce abundance 

 of fertile seeds, even in places where caprification is never prac- 

 tised, and where tlie caprifig itself is rare, as for example at 

 Camahioli, Ischia, &c. But such observations always leave some 

 doubt wlietlier the insect may not have come from somewhere 

 else, and effected fecundation. In reply to which it must be 

 remembered, in the first place, that this insect, when he issues 

 from his nest, flies with difficulty to any considerable distance ; 

 and next, that after he has entered the fig he dies there, and is 

 afterwards to be found either entire or partly decomposed : at 

 the least there remains, as a sign of his having been inside, a 

 brown spot, which easily turns to decay. Now in places where 

 there are no caprifigs, and where caprification is not practised, 

 I have found tlie seeds perfect in figs which did not show the 

 least sign of the insect having penetrated. Besides, towards the 

 middle of July I impregnated artificially thirty flower-heads on 

 a Lardaro fig, by introducing into the aperture the pollen of the 

 caprifig ; one month after ten of them had fallen from the tree 

 without their seeds being fertilized, and the remaining ones did 

 not ditfisr either in size or in the number of fertile seeds they 

 contained from the numerous others of the same tree which had 

 neither been caprified nor artificially impregnated. Not satisfied 

 by all this, I made three consecutive years an experiment which 

 appears to me more important than all the above-mentioned 

 observations. Before any flies began to issue from the caprifig 

 flower-heads, 1 closed the apertures of some still small figs of 

 the Lardaro and Sarnese varieties with gum arable mixed with 

 chalk, so as to prevent the insect, should he attempt it, from 

 penetrating withinside ; and I took, care to add some of the mix- 

 ture as the figs grew, to keep them well closed. When they 

 attained their full size I opened them ; they showed no sign 

 whatever of the fly having penetrated, yet they contained seeds 

 with perfect, well-formed embryos. If this experiment is made 

 upon trees to which the caprifig is afterwards applied, it is a 

 curious thing to see the fly, after issuing from its nest, seek a 

 place to deposit its eggs, and, lighting upon the closed figs, 

 exert itself with all its might to penetrate all round the mouth, 

 trying to force it open where it was only slightly green, and 

 finally, seeing all its endeavours hopeless, turn away from it. 

 This experiment clearly proved that caprification was not neces- 



