on the caprification of domestic figs. 99 



illustrating the normal process of oviposition ; no allusion 

 being made in either case to any anomaly in this respect, 

 as subsequently adverted to in the domestic figs (" Bei den 

 essbaren Feigen verlauft der Vorgang anders" — Mayer, 

 p. 560). Hence the presumption could only be that both 

 were speaking of the same description of fig — namely, a 

 wild one — left ambiguous in one version, but defined as 

 such in the other ; the more especially when, in the 

 presence of this specification by the Count, no explanatory 

 character in a different sense was imparted by his col- 

 league. 



Secondly — Dr. Mayer, when speaking of the " edible" 

 or "domestic" figs in several cited passages, adverts to 

 the proceedings of the Blastophagce on such occasions ; 

 namely (1) to their futile attempts at oviposition in the 

 first crop of edible figs — the so-called " Fiori di Fico" — 

 in their young stage early in April (pp. 560 and 562) ; 

 (2) to their conveyance of pollen, whereby fructification 

 of the seeds ensues (p. 561) ; (3) to their ovipositing — 

 also without progeny — in the second crop of edible figs, 

 while these are still very small, at the time when these 

 insects issue from the caprificating wild-figs (Profidii) 

 in June and July, and when moreover they also 

 invade the wild-figs of the third crop — the so-called 

 " Mammo7ii" (p. 562) ; all which circumstances, in so 

 far as referred to by the Count, were comprised by me 

 under the category of "experimental essays," which — 

 now authoritatively denied — offered the only apparent 

 solution of problems involving the presence of these 

 insects in such domestic figs. But the remarkable factor 

 which has now to be taken into account — namely, that 

 of their ingress on these occasions being the normal 

 residt of caprification — cannot but serve to intensify the 

 mystery of their subsequent proceedings and disappear- 

 ance therefrom. In a passage already adverted to. Count 

 Solms informs us, as the result of his own investigations, 

 that in the aforesaid " Fiori di Fico " these insects try 

 to pierce a perpendicular channel from the florets above 

 to the required depth below (as shown in his woodcut at 

 p. 21) in order to deposit their ova, but cannot succeed 

 in effecting this, the egg never attaining its i^roper phice. 

 This, Dr. Mayer now tells us ^^ i^resu-pposes that they had 

 entered the fig in the usual way — through the scales." 



The Count proceeds to state that the creature seems 

 to have soon perceived the inutility of its efforts and to 



