CAPRIFICATION OF THE FIG. 99 
saprifig into edible figs, especially of the Lardaro variety. But his 
pollination produced no decided results. No increase in the num- 
ber of fertile seeds was noticed, either because the flowers of the 
Lardaro variety were principally mule flowers, on which the pollen 
could have no effect, or because the female flowers had all been pre- 
viously pollinated. From this Gasparrini draws the illogical con- 
clusion, repeatedly quoted by later writers, that the caprifig is of a 
species different from the edible fig; that its pollen can not influence or 
feecundate the female flowers of the edible fig, and that consequently 
the practice of caprification is illusionary and of no value whatever. 
Gasparrini did not know of the class of figs which I have designated 
as the Smyrna type, and which, unlike any other class, produces 
principally receptive female flowers, which do not produce seed with- 
out the aid of pollen from the ecaprifig. Had Gasparrini had oppor- 
tunity to extend his interesting and minute investigations to this class 
of figs, the conclusions to which he came would no doubt have been 
greatly modified. 
SMYRNA FIGS IN CALIFORNIA. 
The history of the Smyrna figs in California is intensely interesting, 
and directly bearing upon this point of the production of fertile seeds. 
Imported in 1880 (for details see the historical part) and quite exten- 
sively propagated and planted in the most dissimilar parts of Cali- 
fornia, these figs failed to bear a single ripe fruit during a period of 
ten years. The fruit would form in abundance, the flowers would 
develop and become apparently receptive, as shown by the glands of 
the stigma and the length of the style, but the fruit would invaria- 
bly fall when apparently one-third or one-half grown. It was this 
fact, together with my observation that imported Smyrna figs always 
possessed numerous fertile seeds, while such were never found in our 
other edible figs, that made me a strong advocate of caprification, 
and which satisfied me that pollination was necessary and not illu- 
sionary, as almost everyone else! believed, principally on the testi- 
mony of Gasparrini and Olivier. It would indeed have been strange 
that Smyrna figs should not ripen their fruit in California, if the 
maturing depended only on climatic conditions or differences in soil. 
These figs, consisting of three distinct varieties, were planted in the 
most dissimilar localities and in greatly different soils, and exposed 
to varied climatic conditions found in the northern, central, and 
southern parts of California, in the interior valleys, in the foothills, 
and on the coast. All the Old World fig districts together would 
hardly show more variations in climatic and other conditions than 
did the various localities in which the Smyrna figs were tried ‘in this 
‘As is customary with unpopular theories, the first remarks on caprification in 
California were simply sneered at, and at the best considered illusionary, and 
heated discussions were entered into. 
