and Caprification. 391 



the latter ; so that in both instances, as in that of the 

 pollen also, there is a lack of evidence which it would be 

 difficult to reconcile with any reputed virtues attributed 

 to the caprification process. 



Nevertheless a theory has been advanced by some 

 Italian writers, whereon the Count enters into elaborate 

 explanations of his own (p. 36), to account for the non- 

 existence of any brood of these insects in the domestic 

 figs, namely, that from some strange anomaly their ova 

 are not suitably deposited, and consequently remain 

 unproductive : whereon Dr. Paul Meyer, in his valuable 

 Life-History of Fig-Insects, already referred to, after 

 summarizing the Count's remarks on this head, illus- 

 trated by a copy of his Diagram (p. 560), observes — 

 the reasons which render oviposition impossible here are 

 not known ! The explanation, however, would seem to 

 be, that this hypothesis being necessarily dependent 

 upon experimental essays made with figs laid open for 

 the purpose of artificially introducing the Blastophagce 

 (which are otherwise not to be found therein), the rapid 

 effects of partial desiccation ensuing on such occasions 

 preclude the egg from attaining its proper position, being 

 sometimes met with even reversed, with the pedicel 

 pressed in forwards, as described in these experiments. 



Others, however — among whom the Count cites several 

 writers, including Olivier — have denounced this opera- 

 tion as an inveterate prejudice ; and Gasparrini, of 

 Naples, who had profoundly studied the subject, comes 

 to the same "conclusion" (as quoted by the Count, 

 p. 27), namely, " Abbiamo veduto con esperimenti che 

 l'insetto non accelera la maturazione, ne fa allegare i 

 frutti — e che pero la caprificazione torna del tutto inutile 

 per l'allegamento e la maturazione dei frutti ; anzi 

 dovrebb'essere abolita nella nostra agricoltura." 



As regards the trees themselves, Gasparrini has shown 

 that the Caprificus and its domestic associates appertain 

 alike to the F. Carica, L. ; for, after rearing a number 

 of seedlings from three varieties of the domestic fig-tree, 

 a few of which bore fruit in 1852, some corresponding 

 with the latter and others with the former, he records 

 his results as follows: — " Kes itaque ad pristinum 

 revocanda nam Caprificus et Ficus uti ex experimenta 

 liquet sunt individui ejusdem speciei ex qua tot tantseque 

 varietates et subvarietates promanant " (Solms, p. 19). 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1883. — PART IV. (NOV.) 2 G 



