36 



are, he says, the figs of the Archipelago, and many of those of the king- 

 dom of Naples, all producing female flowers only. 



4. Opinions against Caprification. There are many who will not admit 

 that any effect is produced by caprification, and these are chiefly igno- 

 rant or simple cultivators, who judge from observing that in many places 

 figs ripen without the cooperation of the caprifig. But with these must 

 not be confounded two distinguished French naturalists, Olivier and 

 Bory de St. Vincent, who have enounced the same opinion. The for- 

 mer, after having explained the process as practiced in Greece, adds: 

 " This operation, of which some authors, both ancient and modern, 

 have spoken with admiration, appears to me to be nothing more than a 

 tribute of ignorance, which man pays to prejudice. Caprification is 

 unknown in many parts of the Levant, in Italy, in France, and in 

 Spain, and begins to be abandoned in some islands of the Archipelago 

 where it used to be practiced, and which, nevertheless, still produce 

 excellent figs for eating. If the operation were necessary, whether 

 fecundation be effected by the fertilizing pollen dispersed in the air, 

 introducing itself into the mouth of the fig, or whether nature make use 

 of a little fly to transmit it from one fig to another, as is commonly 

 believed, it is evident that the first fig in flower could not fecundate at 

 the same time as those which have already attained a certain size, and 

 those which are only just appearing, in order to ripen two months later." 

 I do not transcribe the words of Bory, for his narration appears to me 

 to be but a judicious illustration of what Olivier had stated. 



And here I close the history with the following brief recapitulation of 

 different opinions of authors on the mode of operating of caprification: 

 The ancients believed that its virtue depended on the fly of the capri- 

 fig, which, by forcing its way into the domestic fig, facilitated the 

 entrance of light and some fertilizing or fermenting vapor, and enabled 

 the fig to set and ripen, and that a poor soil and northern exposure pro- 

 duced the same effect. Tournefort believed that the insect made the figs 

 set and ripen by pricking and biting them, giving an issue to the super- 

 fluous juices, and perhaps by communicating some peculiar humors of 

 their own produced the saccharine maturation. Pontedera followed the 

 ancients, whose theories were all based on, that of Theophrastus. Lin- 

 naeus concluded, from the observations of Pontedera on the structure of 

 the flowers of the caprifig and the fig, that the latter could not be fecun- 

 dated without the assistance of the caprifig, and that this fecundation 

 enabled them to set more abundantly. Cavolini combined in some 

 measure the theories of Linnaeus and of Theophrastus, affirming that the 

 caprifig fecundates the fig, and thereby causes it to bear more fruits and 

 ripen them better; but that the same fig can also ripen its fruit in certain 

 districts by the sole effect of soil and climate. Gallesio follows Cavolini 

 in so far as regards the action and effects of fecundation, but believes 

 that neither climate nor soil can produce anything of the kind; and that 

 the figs which do not require caprification differ from the others in the 

 internal structure of their flowers. Lastly, the opinion of our cultivators 

 is nearly that of the Greeks. They believe that the caprifig is neces- 

 sary for some figs, which, without it, would lose the whole or the greater 

 part of their fruits, whilst still sour, and that it hastens the maturity 

 even of those figs which do not absolutely require it. They also admit 

 that the quality of the soil and climate may, in some cases, produce the 

 same effect as caprification. 



