Ficus.] LXVII. URTICACE^. 419 



caprification, an old practice, by which it was supposed that the setting and ripen- 

 ing of the Fig was promoted. He established the genera Urostigma and Covellia 

 (p. 412), and divided the common Fig-tree (F. Carica) into two genera, Ficus 

 and Caprificus, each of which he subdivided into numerous species. Gaspar- 

 rini distinguishes Gajwificus, which comprises the wild Figs, the fruit of which 

 is not eatable, from Ficus by the 3-partite female perianth, and the ovary always 

 1 -celled, but the minute sexual organs of this genus, which develop themselves 

 in a crowded state, pressing against each other, while the delicate parts of the 

 flower are being formed, present great variation and irregularity, the limits of 

 which for each species are as yet only imperfectly known. The kind called by 

 Gasparrini Caprificus is generally inhabited by an insect (Psenes caprifici), and 

 it was an old practice in Greece, described by Aristotle and Theophrastus, to 

 plant the Capri Fig by the side of the Fig, or to suspend the fruits of the one to 

 the branches of the other, the supposition being that the insect enters the unripe 

 fruits of the domestic Fig and causes them to set or accelerates their ripening. 

 This practice of caprification seems to have spread to South Italy from Greece, 

 and it is still practised in parts of these two countries, as well as in Asia Minor, 

 though it is unknown in Spain, the South of France, and, as far as I am aware, 

 in Afghanistan and India. Numerous endeavours to explain the rationale of 

 this practice have been made by scientific men ever since the time of Theo- 

 phrastus, the generally accepted opinion being that the insect promotes the fer- 

 tilisation of the Fig, making an opening by which the pollen escapes, or by car- 

 rying the pollen from the Figs with male flowers to those which have only female 

 flowers. Against this stands the fact, that many kinds of Fig attain maturity 

 with sterile seeds that is, seeds in which the embryo has not been developed, 

 and therefore fecundation is not an essential condition to the ripening of Figs. 

 Gasparrini, however, not satisfied with general objections, made a series of in- 

 teresting experiments, which he published in 1845, from which it would ap- 

 pear that caprification has no effect whatever on the ripening of the Fig, and 

 that, however old the practice of Greek and Italian gardeners may be, its advan- 

 tage or usefulness can in no way be established. Twenty years later (in 1865), 

 the same author published the result of experiments, which he had undertaken 

 to investigate another practice of the Neapolitan cultivators, called punc- 

 turation, which consists in anointing the mouth of the unripe Fig, when it has 

 arrived at a certain size, with a very small quantity of olive oil. There is no 

 doubt that this practice advances maturation by about ten days, and Gasparrini 

 found that, while the application of other liquids was without any effect, most 

 oils or fatty substances, as well as most acids (particularly tartaric and diluted 

 sulphuric acid), if applied to the scales at the mouth of the fig, had the effect of 

 considerably accelerating maturity. These remarkable experiments seem to sug- 

 gest the possibility of an action by the insect upon the development of the fruit, 

 which has not yet been discovered. English translations of these two interest- 

 ing memoirs will be found in the Journal of the Horticultural Society of London, 

 iii. 185, and New Series, ii. 1. 



Ficus Sycomorus, Linn. Syn. Sycomorus antiquorum, Gasp., is a large, 

 spreading, very shady tree, common in Egypt and Abyssinia, planted in avenues 

 near Cairo, and believed to attain a great age. Branchlets, petioles, and nerves 

 hairy ; leaves coriaceous, glabrate, upper side shining, broad-ovate with cor- 

 date base, entire or repand ; basal nerves 3, midrib penniveined. Eeceptacles 

 on leafless paniculate branchlets from the trunk or larger boughs, male and 

 female flowers in distinct receptacles. The wood was used by the old Egyptians 

 for mummy cases. 



9. F. virgata, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 530 j Wight Ic. 649. Syn. F. cari- 

 coides, Eoxb. 1. c. 529 ; Wight Ic. t. 634 (probably). Vern. Anjir, inzar, 



