53 



preoccupied with the idea of caprification. To every contradiction of 

 mine they put forward that the experience of many years had proved 

 to them the importance of it. Sometimes we came to the proof. When 

 I showed them fruits not caprified ripening at the same time as others 

 that were caprified, the most sensible of them replied that that depended 

 on the soil, but that did not affect the property the insect has of mak- 

 ing those fruits into which it penetrates set and ripen early. If, then, I 

 showed them the number of fruits fallen from a caprified and non-cap- 

 rified tree, they always claimed the advantage; and if I said that the 

 same fig, as the Sarnese, for instance, ripened at Ischia abundantly 

 without the caprifig, they said that depended on the soil and on habit. 

 Our cultivators hold it for a maxim that if a fig has once had the capri- 

 fig applied, even the White fig, which in their opinion does not require 

 it, it feels ever after the influence; and as if having once tasted of it 

 gets a bad habit, will the following year only produce few fruits without 

 the caprifig. Besides, seeing the insect with so much industry and ardor 

 work its way from scale to scale into the inside of the fig cannot, in their 

 opinion, but produce some effect. With such and similar matter it will 

 be admitted that I may be quite satisfied. 



18. Conclusions. From the facts above stated it appears clearly: 



1. That to understand well the effects of caprification, it is in the first 

 instance necessary to know the nature of the fig and of the caprifig, and 

 what connection they have with each other. And we have seen that 

 the caprifig is not the male of the fig, as has been hitherto believed, but 

 a species so different from it that it may well be taken as the type of a 

 distinct genus. 



2. The structure of domestic figs, as well of those to which the capri- 

 fig is applied as of others, is perfectly similar in so far as concerns the 

 organs of the flower, the structure of the seed, and of the receptacle; so 

 that it does not appear how the insect of the caprifig can be necessary 

 to some varieties only. 



3. And we have seen by experiment that the insect neither hastens 

 the maturity nor causes the fruit to set, whether of early or late figs, 

 nor yet is it necessary for fecundation. 



4. That the circumstance of the caprifig losing early many of the 

 fruits in which the fly has not been bred, does not serve to prove the 

 necessity of caprification, but rather to refute the doctrine completely, 

 as the fly does not breed in the domestic fig; and besides, we have' seen 

 that when the caprifig bears a large crop of fruits, many of them fall 

 unripe, even though the insect has been in it, and the grub be found in 

 the ovaries. 



5. And in respect of the caducity of the fruits of some figs, the 

 causes must be sought for chiefly in the constitution and mode of vege- 

 tation of those varieties; and also in the soil, climate, and vicissitudes 

 of the season. 



6. That thus caprification is useless for the setting and ripening of 

 fruit, and therefore this custom, which entails expense and deteriorates 

 the flavor of the fig, ought to be abolished from our agriculture. 



19. Conjectures on the Origin of Caprification. Having now reached 

 the term of my labors, I cannot conceal a certain anxiety which has 

 secretly grown up in my mind. I fancy I hear from all quarters that 

 the custom of caprification being of such ancient date, and having been 

 upheld by so many distinguished men of science, both ancient and 



