114 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
suspended, or sometimes even before, the Blastophagas begin to hatch. 
It even appears that the pulling of the caprifigs hastens the maturity 
and escape of the wasp. As soon as these have hatched they crawl 
out of the caprifigs in search of young caprifig mammoni, in them to 
lay their eggs, as has already been described. But as the caprifigs 
are not near, no such mammoni are to be found. In place of them 
the wasps encounter only edible figs, and not being aware of the decep- 
tion practiced, they enter these edible figs for the purpose of breeding. 
The flowers of the edible figs are, however, so constructed that the 
intentions of the wasps are completely frustrated. Instead of the 
necessary gall flowers, which are especially adapted to the ovipositor 
organs of the wasps, only female flowers with long styles are found 
and which are otherwise so modified that the wasps find it impossible 
to properly lay their eggs. All their frantic efforts to penetrate the 
canal of the style and to reach the fig’ ovary and its nucellus are in 
vain. The Blastophaga can not breed in any edible fig. Still, her 
visit has a very great effect on the edible female fig flowers, provided 
these are of the proper age and development. The pollen from the 
caprifig, with which the wasps were liberally dusted, adheres to the 
female stigmas, the effect being: pollination and fecundation of the 
flowers. The Blastophaga herself dies and her dead body may be seen 
upon opening a fig which has not advanced too far in maturity. 
It is here assumed, as is really the case, that the wasp can not prop- 
erly place its egg in the female flower, but even if she could do so or 
would accidentally do so, the egg would not properly develop, as it is 
only the gall flower which is suitable to the growth of the larva of the 
wasp. But even if by chance such development would take place the 
young wasp would quickly perish by being enveloped in the sugary 
liquid of the mature fig. A certainty is, however, that I have never 
found any gall in the mature Smyrna figs, which shows that no such 
development takes place. 
What does not take place in caprification.—Since the most remote 
time so many opinions have been expressed as regards the conse- 
quences of caprification that it may be proper to here point out what 
does not take place. The old opinion that the gnawing of the wasp 
relieves the fig of its superfluous juices and thus causes it to mature 
is too absurd to be given much thought. The gnawing done by 
the wasps is so infinitely small that the fig, through the combined 
efforts of 20 wasps, would not lose one ordinary drop of sap. Figs 
wounded by a needle in such a way that many drops of juice escape 
do not show any tendency to set better, as I have repeatedly demon- 
strated. The gnawing of a few wasps can, therefore, not have any 
effect on the receptacle of the fig. The pollination alone can account 
for the maturing of such figs as require caprification. Thus, of all the 
figs which we have tried in California, some fifty or more varieties, only 
some seven or eight kinds do not set their fruit; all others do. To 
mye 
