31 



but that California will produce as fine figs as any in the world. If the 

 Smyrna will not give us this, we may yet hope for a California variety 

 that will equal it. The industry is, as yet, a comparatively new one, 

 the first carload of dried figs shipped to the East having been sent from 

 Fresno, in 1889, and these sold at good figures. With this introduction, 

 and persistent work, there can be no question but that in a few years 

 California figs will take their stand side by side with California prunes 

 and figs in the markets of the Eastern States. 



The question of caprification, which is at present attracting so much 

 attention, has been most ably expounded by Professor Gasparrini, 

 referred to elsewhere, and the following is a translation from the Italian 

 of his essay: 



ON THE CAPRIFICATION OF THE FIG. 



[The Royal Academy of Sciences of Naples proposed as the subject 

 of an essay: 



1. To examine the opinions of authors on caprification, above all, 

 those of Cavolina and Gallesio, and to see what were the merits of the 

 ideas and experiments of these men. 



2. To describe the varieties of figs, especially those on which caprifica- 

 tion is practiced. 



3. To prove by experiment, or on anatomical or physiological grounds, 

 whether the fertilization of the seeds is affected by the insect of the 

 caprifig, or whether the insect produces no such effect and caprification 

 be useless. 



4. The essay to be accompanied by figures representing the varieties 

 of fig on which the experiments are made, and the structure of their 

 organs of fecundation and fructification. 



Gasparrini's memoir in reply is divided into four parts. The first 

 contains a detailed physiological account of the caprifig and its different 

 varieties, which he considers not only specifically but generically distinct 

 from the cultivated fig, including a detailed history of the fly bred in 

 its fruits. 



The second is a similar account of eatable figs cultivated about 

 Naples. 



The third (here translated) relates specially to caprification. 



The fourth is a botanical comparison of the fig, the caprifig, and some 

 exotic species. B. M. L.] 



1. Historical Notes on the Subject. Herodotus informs us in his his- 

 tories that the Babylonians knew of old that there were male and female 

 date trees, and that the female required the concurrence of the male to 

 become fertile. This fact was also known to the Egyptians, to the Phoe- 

 nicians, and to other nations of Asia and Africa. The ancients were 

 acquainted, moreover, with several circumstances proved by experience 

 relative to the diversity of sexes in plants, like the one just mentioned 

 of the date tree, and among these dioecious plants they distinguished 

 the female as being the one that bore fruit. And in other cases where 

 they suspected a diversity of sexes, not having any fixed rule or suffi- 

 cient science to guide them, they judged merely by external /acies, by 

 medicinal virtues, or by other such fallacious or slight indications. If 

 it may not indeed at all times have been universally believed that all 

 things endowed with senses or life are reproduced by the concurrence 

 of sexes, yet the ancients, although they could not detect either the 



