522 THE FERTILISATION OF FLOWERS. [parr ut. 
emerge ; they gnaw their way into the ovaries in which the females 
lie, and impregnate them, and afterwards perish within the same 
fig in which they were born. The winged females then escape 
by widening the passage made by the males. They leave the ripe 
fig by way of the ostiolum, and enter a young fig either of the 
same Caprificus or of a neighbouring fig-tree, to lay their eggs in 
its female flowers. 'The wasps which enter the young Caprificus- 
figs (either passing from mamime to profichi, or from profichi to 
mammont, or from manmont to mamme) produce a new progeny ; 
those on the other hand which enter young figs upon a fig-tree 
(passing from mamme to fiori di fico, or from profichi to pedagnuoli, 
or from mammoni to cimaruoli) leave no offspring, since in the 
cultivated figs the female flowers are so constituted that the 
wasps are not able to lay their eggs in the right spot. 
Of the three generations of wasps only those which have 
developed within profichi act as fertilising-agents. In the profichi, 
at the time when the wasps escape from the ovaries, the zone 
of male flowers near the ostiolum is covered with pollen; so the 
wasps leave these figs laden with pollen. They carry this pollen 
partly to the stigmas of young mammoni of Caprificus, which, 
however, rarely set a seed capable of germinating, and partly to 
the pedagnuoli of the fig-tree, which after this cross-fertilisation 
bear good seed plentifully. 
While the fruit of the Caprificus, whose only use is to supply 
pollen, remains hard and withers on the tree or falls off without 
becoming sweet, the fruit of the fig-tree, when the seeds ripen, 
becomes sweet and juicy, and so attracts birds which disseminate 
the seeds. 
From the most ancient times, as long as the fig-tree has been 
cultivated, its artificial fertilisation by means of the Caprificus, 
or so-called Caprification, has been practised. This process consists 
in hanging ripe fruit of the Caprificus (proficht) to the branches of 
fig-trees, whose figs (pedagnuolt) are then in their female stage, 
with open ostiola. The wasps, issuing from the former, enter the 
latter, bringing the pollen of the projfichi with them.! 
Sycomorus antiquorum, Miq.—The Egyptian Sycamore has for 
its fertilising agent a small wasp, Sycophaga sycomori, Hasselquist, 
which is closely related to the fig-wasp, and has a similar mode 
of life. The females do not leave the ripe fruit through the 
ostiolum, but through several holes which they make near it. 
? See Bibliographical Index for a list of papers relating to Caprification, 
ow 
————<— 
