Fruits 183 



The insect enters the orifice of a fig and lays eggs in the ovaries 

 with short styles which lie below the staminate flowers. The 

 inflorescence is protogynous. When the eggs hatch, the 

 females emerge to lay eggs in another flower. By this time 

 the stamens are ripe and as the female passes out she takes 

 some of the pollen with her. The insect ovipositor is not 

 long enough to reach the ovaries with the long styles. They 

 therefore develop seed. 



The insect, which is a wasp, Blastophaga glossorum, loses 

 its wings in making its way through the small opening and 

 dies within after laying her eggs. The male wasps die after 

 mating and do not escape from the figs within which they 

 hatch. No wasps hatch in the edible figs as no eggs were able 

 to be deposited there, the edible fig having the long styled 

 flowers. 



The pistillate flowers mature two months before the 

 staminate, but by this time the second crop of fruits are borne 

 with stigmas ready for pollination, by the stamens of the pre- 

 ceding generation. 



The Agricultural Department introduced trees, with sta- 

 minate flowers (caprifigs), into this country in 1903. In 1908, 

 after the trees were old enough to bear fruit regularly, the 

 Blastophaga was introduced. Figs will ripen without the wasp 

 and the caprifigs, but the fruit is not so fine as the Smyrna Fig, 

 which requires caprification. The Government Entomologist 

 of Cape Town kindly supplied information that in December, 

 1 910, the wasp was emerging from the caprifigs and seeking 

 fruit to enter. Figs not requiring caprification are benefited 

 inasmuch as it causes the trees to mature an additional crop 

 of fruit. The Castle Kennedy Fig, which normally develops its 

 early crop and sets its second, will mature its second crop if 

 the flowers are pollinated. 



In the Mulberry several female flowers grow in a head. 

 The Blackberry looks something like this fruit, but if the two 

 fruits grow in your district you can see that the Blackberry is 

 formed from a single flower, and that the Mulberry is a head 

 of imperfect flowers. 



The Pineapple is a head of perfect flowers crowded together 



