THE FIG-GNAT. 529 



even determine the order to •which they belonged. They are 

 found in the middle of a wild fig, called Ficus terragena, the 

 fruit of which is unfit for food. 



That certain insects frequented the fig, and perhaps exercised 

 some influence on the fertility of the fruit, was well known to 

 the old naturalists, who designated their office by the name of 

 " caprification." This belief is mentioned by Mouffet in his work 

 on insects : " It is called Culex ficarius, i.e. Fig-gnat, not because 

 it comes indeed of the fig-tree, but because it is fed and sus- 

 tained by its fruit. For it is sprung of a certain worm that 

 breeds in the Figs, which when Nature cannot make her perfect 

 work upon, nor bring to the sweetness and perfection of other 

 Figs, lest she should make something in vain, by a certain 

 quickening vertue, out of the grains of them, being rotten and 

 putrified, she produceth these Gnats. 



" Yet not so as that the Gnat is the parergon, as besides the 

 intentions of Nature (so Scaliger hath learnedly observed) ; or if it 

 be, the truth is, the work by the bye is of more dignity than the 

 main. Nature did propose to itself the perfection of a wilde Fig, 

 a thing not so much to be esteemed of : this she not being able to 

 bring to passe, turns herself from so common a work to an enter- 

 prise of greater weight and produceth a Gnat, which she effecteth. 



" Concerning these Gnats, Fling hath these words : the wilde 

 Fig-tree brings forth Gnats, these being defrauded of the nou- 

 rishment they should have received from their mother, being 

 turned to rottenness they go to the neighbouring Fig-tree, and with 

 the often biting of the same Fig-tree and greedily feeding upon 

 it, they let in the sun withall and set free a door for plenty of 

 air to enter in at. Anon after they destroy the milky moisture 

 and infancy of the fruit, which is done very easily, and as it 

 were of its own accord : and for that cause the wild fig-tree is 

 alwaies set before the fig-trees, that the wind, when the Gnats fly 

 out of them may carry them among the fig-trees, who, as soon 

 as they come into them, the figs swell and, ripening of a sudden, 

 grow very big and full. 



" But what time these Gnats pass from the wilde fig to the 

 fig-tree, they do it in such haste that many of them leave either 

 a foot or a wing behind them. Now that they generated of the 

 grains of the unripe fig may be evident in that the wilde fig is 

 left void of grains." 



M M 



