46 



provisions for the winter, than to lay down any positive laws on the 

 subject. The author suggests the following enquiries. 



" 1 . What is tlie general food of our European ants ? 



" 2. What is the food of the Atta providens and other species of Asia ? 



" 3. Do exotic ants, particularly those of the genus Atta, derive any sustenance 

 from Aphides P If not, the CBConomy of the races are distinct, and it is pro- 

 bable that the hoarded grains are their usual food. 



" 4. Do the ants of tropical countries become torpid during any part of the year ? 

 Probably not."— p. 213. 



Mr. Hope cites in a note the following interesting passage from 

 Meer Hassan Ali's ' History of the Mussulmauns.' 



" ' More industrious little creatures cannot exist than the small red ants, which 

 are so abundant in India ; I have watched them at their labours for hours, without 

 tiring ; they are so small that from eight to twelve in number labour with great diffi- 

 culty to convey a grain of wheat or barley, yet these are not more than half the size of 

 a grain of English wheat. I have known them to carry one of these grains to their 

 nest, at a distance from 600 to 1000 yards; they travel in two distinct lines over 

 rough or smooth ground, as it may happen, even up and down steps, at one regular 

 pace. The returning unladen ants invariably salute the burthened ones, who are 

 mating their way to the general storehouse, but it is done so promptly that the line 

 is neither broken, nor their progress impeded by the salutation. The natives tell me 

 these little pests will feed on the human body if they are not disturbed ; when any 

 one is sick there is always great anxiety to keep them away. — Vol. ii. p. 99." 



XLIV. — On Ca'prification as practised upon the Figs in the South of Eu- 

 rope and the Levant, with Descriptions of the Insects employed for 

 that purpose ; and Observations upon the Agaon paradoxum of Dal- 

 man. By J. O. Westwood, F.L.S. &c. 



The author, in citing the opinions of various writers on the subject 

 of caprification, quotes the following highly interesting passage from 

 Tournefort. 



" Of the thirty species or varieties of the domestic fig-tree which are cultivated 

 in France, Spain and Italy, there are but two cultivated in the Archipelago. The 

 first species is called Ornos, from the old Greek Erinos, which answers to Capri- 

 ficus in Latin, and signifies a wild fig-tree. The second is the domestic or garden 

 fig-tree. The former bears successively in the same year, three sorts of fruit, 

 called Fornites, Cratitires, and Orni ; which, though not good to eat, are found ab- 

 solutely necessary towards ripening those of the garden fig. These fruits have a sleek 

 even skin, are of a deep green colour, and contain in their dry and mealy inside seve- 

 ral male and female flowers, placed upon distinct foot-stalks, the former above the 

 latter. The Fornites appear in August, and continue to November without ripening; 

 in these are bred small worms, which turn to a sort of gnats, nowhere to be seen but 

 about these trees. In October and November these gnats of themselves make a punc- 

 ture into the second fruit, which is called Cratitires. These do not show themselves 

 till towards the end of September. The Fornites gradually fall away after the gnats 



