120 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
species is inhabited by Blastophagas. Thus, in the botanical garden 
of Java, a row of fig trees, consisting of five different species of figs, 
was found to be inhabited by as many different species of Blasto- 
phaga, each variety in its own fig host, to which it was strictly con- 
fined. The cause of this localization of species must be sought in 
the organization of the wasps and their ovipository organs, which 
enable the insect to deposit its eggs in a certain kind of flower only, 
which again has been changed so as to accommodate the peculiarities 
of the wasp, her size and capabilities. Under such circumstances 
there is no hope that, for instance, the wasp inhabiting the Baja Cali- 
fornia and Sonora fig species can be made to inhabit and breed in our 
caprifigs. Even the sycamore fig is inhabited by its species of inqui- 
lines, but which have never been found in the caprifigs. It may, 
therefore, be assumed with great certainty that only closely allied fig 
species are inhabited by the same species of Blastophagas. But in 
many species of figs we find more than one species of Blastophaga. 
Some figs are inhabited not only by different species, but also by 
different genera of true Blastophaga, while the latter again are 
preyed on by parasitical wasps often equal to them in size. 
SUMMARY. 
Caprification, then, is an horticultural process, based on scientific 
principles. It has been practiced since very ancient times, and is yet 
in vogue in many countries. It is an absolute necessity in places 
where Smyrna figs are grown, or in places where it is of importance to 
pollinate such figs as possess receptive female flowers. Caprification 
causes such figs to set and mature when otherwise they would fall off 
immature. This horticultural maturity is caused by and preceded by 
the botanical maturity of the female flowers. Again, caprification is 
not required for that great class of figs which sets and vipens fruit 
without it, unless, indeed, it should be found practical, profitable, 
and possible to produce seed in such varieties of this class as possess 
receptive female flowers in sufficient number. Caprification is neces- 
sary also for such caprifigs as do not produce overlapping crops. 
HISTORICAL NOTES ON CAPRIFICATION. 
There are very good reasons for supposing that caprification is as 
old as the cultivation of the fig by man. That it originated in some 
of the oldest agricultural countries is much more probable than that 
the practice is of comparatively modern origin—for instance, invented 
by the Greeks during the time intervening between the Homeric songs 
and the era of Alexander. For this belief speaks the fact that the 
caprifig is probably not a native of Greece nor of any other Mediterra- 
nean country, but of southern Arabia, and possibly also of other 
countries in the vicinity of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The fig 
