ON THE CAPELFICATION OF THE FIG. 207 



attached to the bougli, had no fly withinside, and showed no sign 

 of alteration. Two days later, I cut from the same tree another 

 branch with sixteen fruits, of which one with the blackened 

 styles from the presence of the fly was in the act of falling ; two 

 of middling size and firmly attached contained the insect, not in 

 the cavity, but amongst the scales of tiie mouth, and were little 

 if at all affected ; a fourth, the youngest of all, although it con- 

 tained the insect, appeared to be set, and was not injured. The 

 remaining twelve, all pedagnuoli of middling size, were sound 

 and secure, had neither fly nor any sign of decay. On the 5th 

 of August I cut a third branch with eleven fruits all set ; four 

 contained the insect, the otiier seven did not. In the district of 

 Portici a branch of the same variety, of fig with nine fruits had 

 the insect in two fruits ready to fall, and in tliree permanent 

 ones. At the same time on a Sarnese fig I found, besides a ■ 

 number of fruits ready to fall, with the fly, thirty-seven per- 

 manent and large fruits, of which ten had the fly. From a 

 Chiaja fig copiously caprified I detached in the beginning of 

 August forty-three well-set figs, of which only thirteen were 

 without the insect, which in the others was either among the 

 scales of the mouth or in the cavity, or in both ; but always 

 when among the scales it does little damage. And the following 

 year, among eiglity fruits of the same tree thirty-nine only had 

 the fly, which I also found in seventy-four out of one hundred 

 and ninety-four fruits of the white fig. In the first days of July 

 I suspended some caprifig flower-heads to a small tree of the 

 Lardaro which had one hundred and seventy fruits ; in the course 

 of the month forty-three had fallen ; I gathered on the 14th of 

 August the remaining one hundred and twenty-seven, which had 

 become consolidated. Having opened them, I found them sound 

 with good seeds : about thirty only contained the fly, which had 

 done little if any injury to the florets. 



The facts noted of the Sarnese and Lardaro figs prove clearly 

 that it is not by the effect of the insect that the fruits remain on 

 the tree, as the greater number of those which were the soundest 

 and most vigorous did not contain it. The experiment made 

 the first year on the Chiaja fig might perhaps tend to show the 

 contrary, were it not that there was so far a greater proportion 

 of the fallen fruits into which the fly had penetrated. That 

 arose from the great quantity of tlie caprifig, which had been 

 applied three times, so that few of the fruits, whether deciduous 

 or permanent, could escape the insect. Therefore from tlie ob- 

 servations stated under this and the preceding heads, it follows 

 that the insect is not the cause of the permanence and setting of 

 the late figs. If it had been so, it would have been found only 

 or at least chiefly in the permanent fruits, whereas the contrary 



