244 



PRACTICAL COURSE IN BOTANY 



Fig. 355. — Upper boughs of a capri- 

 fig tree, showing an abundant crop of 

 spring fruit. 



food for her offspring by gathering a ball of pollen in her 

 antenna? and deliberately plastering it over the stigma (Fig. 

 353). In this way fertilization of the ovules and maturing 

 of the fruit is secured. The larva? feed on the unripe seeds 



for a time, but so few are 

 destroyed in proportion to 

 the number matured that 

 the plant can well afford to 

 pay the small toll charged 

 in return for the service 

 rendered. 



279. Caprification of the 

 fig. — A more complicated 

 case of specialization is that 

 of the Smyrna fig of com- 

 merce — the only one of the 

 species that is capable of 

 perfecting seeds. The 

 staminate flowers are borne on a separate tree, the caprifig, 

 which grows wild in the countries bordering on the Medi- 

 terranean. The caprifigs, as the fruit of this tree is called, 

 are worthless except as the breeding 

 and nesting places of a small insect, 

 the fig wasp. This insect is the 

 necessary agent in conveying pollen 

 from the stamens of the caprifig to 

 the pistils of the Smyrna fig, which it 

 penetrates at certain seasons of the 

 year in the effort to lay its eggs. In 

 order to insure caprification, as this process is called, the 

 caprifigs are strung by hand on fillets of cord or raffia and 

 hung about on the trees which are to be fertilized. In this 

 case we have an example of a threefold partnership between 

 man, the fig tree, and the wasp, which is necessary to the 

 existence of two of the parties. 



Fig. 356. — Female wasps 

 issuing from the galls of capri- 

 figs, in which the eggs are 

 laid. 



