41 



caprified trees lose also a great quantity of their figs; and next, that 

 those not caprified ripen many of theirs, with such differences as are 

 occasioned by the above-mentioned causes or others to which I shall 

 presently advert. 



The double-bearing figs, such as the Paradise, the Colombro, and the 

 Sampiero, usually bring many of their early figs to maturity, and but 

 few or none of the late ones; and cultivators affirm that by caprification 

 an abundant second crop may be obtained. Although I had often seen the 

 Colombro ripen many of the late crop without the caprifig, I neverthe- 

 less wished to see the results of comparative experiment. Therefore, in 

 the beginning of July, in the neighborhood of Pianura, I gave the cap- 

 rifig to several trees of the Colombro fig; amongst them many had lost 

 all their figs by the middle of August, some retained a few; they had 

 fared like other trees of the same sort not caprified and placed at a con- 

 siderable distance. Among the fallen fruits some contained the insect, 

 others did not, and it was the same with those that remained on the 

 trees and were advancing toward maturity. Amongst these Colombro 

 figs were several trees of the Sampiero, of which four were caprified. 

 The result was that two of them lost all their figs, both those at the base 

 of the fruit-branches, called pedagnuoli, and those of the extremities, 

 called cimaruoli. The other two trees scarcely ripened a fourth part, 

 and those chiefly cimaruoli, and the fly had penetrated into some of the 

 fallen fruits. It must be noted, moreover, that the above fig trees were 

 all of the same age, in the same soil, with the same exposure, and all 

 more or less had brought to maturity a good, early crop. The same 

 experiment, repeated at Ischia on two trees of the Colombro, produced 

 no result. For if these trees were pretty well loaded, the same thing 

 took place in many other parts of the island without caprification, and 

 not infrequently in the same places were fig trees near to each other, 

 some with and some without fruits, without anything appearing to show 

 a probable reason for such diversity. 



8. Does the Caprifig, by the Assistance of its Insect, Fecundate the 

 Female Flowers of the Late Figs? As soon as botanists learned, from the 

 observations of Pontedera, that the flowers of the different varieties of 

 the domestic fig were always all female, as well in the early as in the late 

 flowers, and as they believed that the caprifig was the male plant, they 

 at once, by common consent, without further observation, concluded 

 that these female flowers could only be fecundated by means of the 

 insect recognizing in this a providence of nature for the accomplish- 

 ment of that important function. And I, myself, having ascertained 

 the correctness of the fact stated, came naturally to the same conclu- 

 sion, although I had ascertained that the caprifig was not the male of 

 the fig, but a very different plant. But in the course of time doubts 

 gradually suggested themselves to my mind, to remove which I devoted 

 myself to ulterior researches. First, it appeared to me impossible that 

 in all sorts of early figs there should never be a single fertile seed, even 

 when male flowers were present. Yet, after repeated examinations, I 

 always found such to be the case. This must not excite surprise, how- 

 ever, on considering that the flies which enter these come from the 

 cratiri (the young figs of the caprifig that were first formed in the 

 previous autumn), in which are either no male flowers or very few, and 

 those almost always imperfect, and with little or no pollen. And then, 

 if in these early figs I occasionally found a male flower, it was only 



