42 



formed long after the female flowers, and its anthers never opened, so 

 that any one might conclude that if there were no fertile seeds it was 

 for want of fecundation. What is surprising, is the fact that in the late 

 figs the embryo is produced especially in the pedagnuoli (at the base of 

 its branches), and in hot situations, whether the tree be caprified or 

 not. The White fig, the Dottato, and others which the Neapolitans do 

 not caprify, produce abundance of fertile seeds, even in places where 

 caprification is never practiced, and where the caprifig itself is rare, as, 

 for example, at Camaldoli, Ischia, etc. But such observations always 

 leave some doubt whether the insect may not have come from some- 

 where else, and effected fecundation. In reply to which it must be 

 remembered, in the first place, that this insect, when he issues from his 

 nest, flies with difficulty to any considerable distance; and next, that 

 after he has entered the fig he dies there, and is afterwards to be found 

 either entire or partly decomposed; at the least there remains, as a sign 

 of his having been inside, a brown spot, which easily turns to decay. 



Now, in places where there are no caprifigs, and where caprification is 

 not practiced, I have found the seeds perfect in figs which did not show 

 the least sign of the insect having penetrated. Besides, towards the 

 middle of July I impregnated artificially thirty flower-heads on a Lar- 

 daro fig, by introducing into the aperture the pollen of the caprifig; one 

 month after ten of them had fallen from the tree without their seeds 

 being fertilized, and the remaining ones did not differ, either in size or 

 in the number of fertile seeds they contained, from the numerous others 

 of the same tree which had neither been caprified nor artificially 

 impregnated. Not satisfied by all this, I made three consecutive years 

 an experiment which appears to me more important than all the above- 

 mentioned observations. Before any flies began to issue from the 

 caprifig flower-heads, I closed the apertures of some still small figs of 

 the Lardaro and Sarnese varieties with gum arabic mixed with chalk, 

 so as to prevent the insect, should he attempt it, from penetrating 

 withinside; and I took care to add some of the mixture as the figs grew, 

 to keep them well closed. When they attained their full size I opened 

 them; they showed no sign whatever of the fly having penetrated, yet 

 they contained seeds with perfect, well-formed embryo. If this experi- 

 ment is made upon trees to which the caprifig is afterwards applied, it 

 is a curious thing to see the fly, after issuing from its nest, seek a place 

 to deposit its eggs, and, lighting upon the closed fig, exert itself with all 

 its might to penetrate all around the mouth, trying to force it open 

 where it was only slightly green, and finally, seeing -all its endeavors 

 hopeless, turn away from it. This experiment clearly proved that cap- 

 rification was not necessary to generate the embryo of the fig, though it 

 was not conclusive as to impregnation not being requisite. For it 

 might have happened that some organ or other under some strange 

 form might contain the pollen, and be found on or amongst the female 

 flowers. 



With this view I examined with the microscope, with all the care in 

 my power, all the internal parts of the fig in every stage, from its first 

 appearance to the attaining its full size the scales under the mouth, 

 the pedicels, the bracts, the perigone, the pistil from the base to the 

 summit and I never succeeded in discovering anything which con- 

 tained pollen, or any other analogous substance which might be even 

 suspected of producing impregnation. Only it must be observed that 



