110 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
year. Each crop of figs has, as we have seen, had its own crop or 
brood of wasps, from which it follows that if: the profichi or mamme 
should fail the wasps would also perish. — 
To facilitate the understanding of the life history of the wasp, as 
observed in Italy, the following diagrammatic table has been prepared. 
A. Profichi of the caprifig, October to Sune: 
1. In March or April these figs are less than quarter grown. 
2. The Blastophaga females, issuing from the mamme, enter the figs dea here 
deposit their eggs in the gall flowers. 
3. In June, or two months later, these Blastophaga eggs have become fully 
developed, and the perfect wasps emerge to seek other figs. 
4, In emerging the wasps are covered with pollen. 
B. Mammoni of the caprifig, June to autumn: 
1. In June and July the second crop is quarter grown. 
2. The Blastophagas emerging from the previous crop penetrate into these 
second-crop figs and deposit their eggs in the gall HOW ELS 
3. In doing so they also pollinate the female flowers. 
4, In August or September the Blastophaga eggs are fully developed and the 
perfect wasps emerge, hunting for the young figs of the mamme. 
5. A few seeds fully developed are found in this the second crop of the capri- 
fig, none being found in the other two crops. 
C. Mamme of the caprifig, July, through winter, to March. 
1. In autumn the mamme are quarter grown. 
2. The Blastophaga, hatching from the preceding crop, enter the mamme and 
there deposit their eggs in the gall flowers. 
The mamme, with the gall flowers and the eggs of the Blastophaga., hiber- 
nate on the tree. slowly increasing in size. 
4, With the advent of spring the mamme and the Blastophaga eggs ae 
more rapidly. 
5. In March and April the Blastophaga eggs have developed into full-grown 
wasps, which emerge from the figs seeking the young figs of the first crop, 
the profichi, in order to deposit their eggs in them. 
cs 
PRACTICAL CAPRIFICATION. 
Process of caprification.—The process of caprification consists in 
bringing the caprifigs, of the proper age and crop, in close proximity 
to the edible figs, in order that the wasps, as soon as they leave the 
caprifigs, may be lured into the edible figs. Practically, this is 
accomplished in different ways, more or less proper and economieal. 
In Smyrna, Syria, Greece, Italy, and Africa the caprifigs are pulled 
at the proper time in June, the profichi being the only crop used for 
this purpose. The caprifigs are then becoming soft and the male 
flowers ready to shed their pollen. The caprifigs are at once strung 
on split reeds or rough straws in quantities of four on each straw. 
(Fig. 18.) These straws are thrown over and suspended among the 
branches of the edible-fig tree. Another method, much inferior to 
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