214 
Mr. J. O. Westwood on Caprification. 
XLIV. On Caprification as practised upon the Figs in the 
South of Europe and the Levant, with Descriptions of 
the Insects employed for that Purpose; and Observations 
upon the Agaon paradoxum of Dalman. By J. O. West- 
wood, F.L. S., &pc. 
[Read 2d January, 1837.] 
It is one of the most interesting portions of the study of natural 
history to trace those higher relations which exist amongst the 
great divisions of nature, and to endeavour to discover the effects 
of each upon each. The botanist, for instance, who looks beyond 
the technical details of his science, strives to ascertain the rela- 
tions of particular tribes of plants with particular geographical 
and geological districts ; and the ornithologist discovers in the 
prominent features of a landscape, whether of rock, vale or flood, 
the peculiar character of the feathered tribes inhabiting the spot. 
In Entomology hitherto but very little has been done in this 
branch of the study of nature, and which has been almost entirely 
confined to the connexion existing between certain insects and 
plants, having for its object the impregnation of the latter, or the 
removal of the entire pollinific masses, whereby the plant is ren- 
dered abortive. The most interesting observations upon this 
subject hitherto published are those by Professor Willdenow, in 
the “ Grundriss der Kraut erkunde,” by whom Aristolochia Clema- 
titis is described as possessing such a structure that the anthers 
cannot impregnate the stigma, which office is performed by a mi- 
nute Tipula (probably a Cecidomyia ), several of which enter the 
throat of the flower, and are unable to return, in consequence of 
a lining of dense hair, which is directed downwards, but which, as 
soon as the pollen has been deposited upon the inclosed stigma, 
shrinks so as to enable the enclosed insects to escape. In like 
manner, in those species of plants which have the male flowers on 
one plant and the female upon another, as well as in those which 
have the stamens in one flower and the pistil in another, the im- 
pregnation is also almost universally performed by insects ; and 
Sprengel asserts, that, in order to prevent hybridism, insects 
which derive honey or pollen from different plants indiscriminately, 
will during a whole day confine their visits to that species on 
which they first fixed in the morning, provided there be a suffi- 
cient supply of it ; and Kirby and Spence notice a passage by 
