ON THE CAPRIFICATION OF THE FIG. 201 



ripen in a room in the depth of winter. On the other hand, tlie 

 appearance of the summer figs at a time when the flower-heads 

 of the caprifig are in a state of perfection, the insect ready to 

 come out, shows in a manner ^ final cause, which can hardly be 

 anything but fecundation. This consideration has always de- 

 terred me from publishing the results of the above-mentioned 

 experiments, and has been the cause of my repeating them so 

 often. What may be really the design of nature in this combi- 

 nation I confess I am ignorant of. Nor do I pretend, with the 

 single example of the fig, to disprove so universal a fact as is 

 the necessity of the concurrence of pollen and impregnation for 

 the generating the seminal embryo, proved by innumerable ex- 

 periments made by so many distinguished men for a century 

 back. I only state what I have seen in this plant, it being pos- 

 sible that others with a more acute judgment tlian my own may 

 loosen the knot and discover one of the numerous contrivances 

 by which Nature meets so frequently her wants, when for the 

 fulfilling some particular end she adopts secret and complicated 

 modes, covering herself from our eyes, contrary to her usual 

 custom, with strange and unusual disguises. 



§ 10. Does the fly cause the setting and afterwards the early 

 maturity of the fig by the puncture it makes in it ? 



The ancients believed that the quantity of humour in the fig 

 might be the cause of the late ripening of its fruits, or by suflfb- 

 cating them that of their falling off' when still sour, and that 

 whatever diminished the quantity of humour, if it did not cause 

 them to set, at least would aid in that operation. And the 

 celebrated Tournefort was of opinion that the insect produced 

 that effect by piercing or gnawing the mouth or the inside of the 

 fig, so as to draw out the super-abundant fluids. This opinion 

 has been followed by many among the moderns, it appearing to 

 them that the case of the fig should be in every respect compared 

 ■with what occurs often in pear, apple, and other fruit-trees, in 

 which it is manifest that the blighted fruits ripen some daj^s 

 before the others ; and Bernard of Marseilles, a distinguished 

 agriculturist, as I read in Gallesio, is of the same opinion ; it 

 appearing to him that what happens from the fly can be proved 

 artificially by pricking the unripe figs with an awl, or even with 

 a straw, and putting a little oil on the puncture. But I think 

 that such ideas and reasonings founded on analogy are worth 

 nothing in the present case ; for before coming to the explana- 

 tion, they ought first to have ascertained whether in fact the fly 

 does or does not hasten the maturity of the fruit, and we have 

 already seen that it does not. Besides, it is not proved yet that 

 the insect pierces the mouth of the fig at all, nor any other part, 

 excepting, perhaps, the ovary in order to deposit its eggs in it ; 



VOL. III. F 



