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commonly called the fruit is a dilatation of the branch, and bears the 

 flowers; but being different from the real branch in internal structure, 

 the nutritive fluids meet with difficulties in passing from the large direct 

 channels of the branch into the vessels of the receptacle, which are of 

 a different structure and direction. On this account they would soon 

 drop off if the female flowers were not fertilized ; but as the fecundation 

 induces an affluence of humors to the ovary, and thence to the recepta- 

 cle, it follows that the one and the other continue to grow. And as this 

 defective structure is greater or less in different sorts of figs, so (extrinsic) 

 fecundation is necessary in some, superfluous in others, whilst others 

 only require a very little of it. And if the same fig at Naples, for 

 example, may require caprification, and not require it at Capri, it is 

 because in the latter place the soil, reduced to the finest dust, and the 

 air loaded, the one with alkaline salts, the other with phlogiston, could 

 produce the same effect; that is, the setting and ripening of a large 

 quantity of fruits. Thus it is that in certain places caprification is 

 entirely unknown, as in the promontory of Sorrentum, Ischia, and other 

 districts. Believing, therefore, that fecundation was necessary to sus- 

 tain the domestic fig till its maturity, and that it contained only female 

 flowers, whilst those of the caprifig were androgynous, with perfect 

 anthers, it followed naturally that the fly coming from one to enter the 

 other should carry with it the pollen or the fertilizing essence. He, 

 consequently, thought it worth while minutely to describe the insect in 

 its various states. Such is, in brief, Cavolini's theory of caprification, 

 which we should have given in detail did it not appear to us to be too 

 prolix and somewhat obscure. 



3. Exposition of the Theory of Gallesio. Gallesio, not long dead, has 

 left a large treatise on the physiology of the fig and on caprification. 

 We have extracted from it in their proper places whatever appeared to 

 us of the most importance on the fig and on the caprifig, and we now 

 proceed to state this author's opinion on caprification. He admits with 

 Theophrastus, Pliny, and so many others, that there are figs which 

 mature their fruits naturally, and others that require caprification. 

 This difference was attributed by the ancients to climate and soil, 

 believing that in a poor soil, with a northern exposure, the fig could 

 nourish and mature its fruit without the caprifig; Gallesio, on the con- 

 trary, affirms that it proceeds from a difference in organization, that the 

 fig requiring the caprifig is quite a different kind from the others, and 

 that both preserve their character and temperament in any soil or 

 climate which they can bear. Now, the diversity in their organization, 

 according to him, is this: Some figs have no flowers capable of being 

 fertilized, as their ovaries are without ovules; these produce no fertile 

 seeds, and cannot feel the action of the caprifig, which they do not 

 stand in need of to preserve and ripen their fruit. These he calls mules, 

 and says it is they which are cultivated in Spain, Florence, and upper 

 Italy. Other figs, called semi-mules, have flowers susceptible of fecun- 

 dation, the ovaries being furnished with ovules. In these fecundation 

 generates the embryo, which causes the nutritive humors to flow to it 

 from the peduncles, which can only draw them from the receptacle; 

 this, again, cannot obtain the nutriment from anywhere but from the 

 stem, and thus the fecundation occasions the setting and ripening of the 

 fruit. And as it is only the caprifig that can produce this effect, so cap- 

 rification is necessary for the perfection of these semi-mule figs. Such 



