on the caprification of domestic jigs. 101 



the caprificating brood, emanating from the aforesaid 

 " Projichi," find the incipient "Mammo^ii," or third crop 

 of wild-figs, more or less available for their reception, 

 though some are still quite small and scarcely visible at 

 that time (Mayer, p. 562) ; while the young domestic-&.gs 

 of the forthcoming second crop are comparatively more 

 advanced and their condition practically unfitted for 

 effective oviposition, as already exemplified. 



But the Count has taken considerable pains to ascer- 

 tain the limits within which the dogma of caprification 

 has prevailed ; and, among the many writers cited, has 

 been unable to find any allusion to such a practice in the 

 heart of Asia ; while from the evidence obtained in 

 other quarters it results, that the middle and north 

 of Italy, the Tyrol, Sardinia, Corsica, the south of 

 France, the north of Spain, the north of Portugal, the 

 Canaries, the Azores, and Egypt, are beyond the pale of 

 these doctrines and ignore them altogether (Solms, 

 pp. 60, 61). 



That in these widely divergent regions ficiculture 

 should be in nowise trammelled with such tactics would 

 seem to discredit the notion of any benefit being con- 

 ferred by this institution beyond fertilizing the seed- 

 germs ; which ingerence, as the Count pronounces in 

 his formula, " once necessary," is now "scarcely useful," 

 such seedlings, unless specially favoured — as in the 

 instance cited by Cavolini of "quel fico ora detto del 

 vescovo che nacque in Sorento su di un muro di un 

 pollajo di quel arcivescovo " — being generally worthless, 

 and the fig-tree at the present day being almost ex- 

 clusively propagated by layers (fast ausschliesslich durch 

 Marcotten vermehrt — lb. p. 17). 



The incongruous device prescribed as a remedy of 

 equivalent efficacy in the absence of Caprificus figs, by 

 substituting in their stead the leaf-galls of the elm (die 

 Aphiden-Blattgallen den Ulm — lb. p. 76) and other 

 anomalous practices, can only serve as a mere salvo for 

 conscience sake, though inculcated by Theophrastus and 

 his disciples ! So also when a single Caprificus-tree is 

 planted in the fig-gardens as adequate protection for all 

 the other fig-trees, the result "being left to chance" 

 (lb. p. 24) ; as if it were possible for each Jig, or for the 

 greater part of the crop, to be influenced thereby in the 

 sense which the Neapolitans attribute to this jjre- 

 cautionary measure, namely to prevent them from fall- 



