4 RIVERSIDE LETTERS I 



assists the fertilisation of the fig. I must, in 

 justice to the evolutionists, however, state that 

 in warm countries there is a very minute long- 

 shaped insect that does make its way into the 

 inside of the fig, and that fig culturers some- 

 times pierce the entrance to hasten the ripen- 

 ing, possibly by thus admitting the insect. 

 Sometimes they also put one drop of very 

 pure olive oil on this entrance. This has to 

 be done just at the exact time when the fig 

 shows signs of commencing to swell, but how 

 this assists in the ripening I do not know, and 

 it seems to me that the oil would effectually 

 bar the entrance to the insect. 



You will no doubt be as much pleased as I 

 was by a bird anecdote sent to me by the 

 Bishop of Reading ; he writes : " Perhaps 

 the following may interest you, testifying as 

 it does to a certainly remarkable exhibition 

 of the sympathy between the human family 

 and the birds. I have a friend, a small man, 

 whose small ness was somewhat compensated 

 by the possession of a luxuriant beard. At 



