215 
Mr. J. O. Westwood on Caprification. 
Dobbs, in the forty-sixth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, 
to the same effect. 
On the other hand, it may be remembered, that at a former 
meeting of this Society a memoir by M. Morren was read, in 
which the agency of insects in preventing the impregnation of the 
Asclepiadece, by the removal of the entire pollinific masses, was 
described. (See Transact. Ent. Soc. Vol. i. App. p. xliv.) 
The process of caprification seems, however, to be the most 
important instance in which insects are employed in promoting 
the developement of vegetables. This process, as described by 
Theophrastus, Plutarch, Pliny, and other ancient writers, corre- 
sponds with what is practised at the present time in the Archi- 
pelago and in Italy. These authors all agree in declaring that 
the wild fig-tree, Ficus caprijicus, never ripened its own fruit, hut 
was absolutely necessary for ripening that of the garden or domestic 
fig. The reason of this success has been supposed to he, that by 
the punctures of certain insects the vessels of the latter fruit are 
wounded, and a consequently increased action in the nutritious juices 
is induced ; whilst some authors have supposed, that the wound 
is accompanied by the emission of a fluid somewhat analogous to 
that supposed to he discharged by the common gall flies, and 
which, fermenting gently with the milk of the figs, makes the 
flesh of the fruit more tender. In confirmation of this view, it is 
stated that the figs in Provence, and even at Paris, ripen much 
sooner for having their buds pricked with a straw dipped in olive 
oil, considerable changes happening to the contexture of fruits so 
pricked, just as to parts of an animal pierced with any sharp in- 
strument. Other authors again have maintained that by pene- 
trating into the centre of the fruit, the insects form a passage 
for the free admission of the air and sun. 
Linnteus, however, explained the process by supposing that the 
insects brought the farina from the wild fig, which contained only 
male flowers, to the domestic fig, which contained only female 
flowers. And I have the authority of Professor Don and Dr. 
Dickson, both eminent botanists, for adopting this view of the 
subject, the structure of the female flower being moreover of such 
a character as to require the interference of an insect for effecting 
its impregnation. Latreille also states that “ les insectes qui en 
sortent (that is, from the wild figs) charges de poussiere fecondante 
s’introduisent par l’oeil dans l’interieur des secondes figues, fecon- 
dent par ce moyen toutes les graines, et provoquent la maturite 
du fruit.” — Hist. Nat. tom. xiii. p. 204. 
M. Bernard, however, opposes this explanation, stating, in the 
VOL. II. 
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