84 TILLERS OF THE GROUND CHAP. 



edict, says Professor Margoliouth, which started the 

 Mohammedans on the period of conquest which 

 transformed the Old World. If Camerarius had 

 lived a thousand years sooner, the history of the 

 world would perhaps have been different ! 



The case of the date-palm is, however, simple com- 

 pared with the fig, for we know now that some date- 

 palms produce only pollen-bearing flowers, and some 

 only fruit-bearing flowers, and either by the wind 

 or by man's agency the dust must be carried from 

 one kind of tree to the other. The case of the fig 

 is more complicated. 



Let us look first at Pliny's account of what was 

 actually done in his day that is, at about the 

 beginning of our era. Pliny was a Roman 

 naturalist and author who lived in the years 

 23-79 A.D. He did not confine himself entirely 

 to facts, but offered a few explanations of his own. 

 Some persons may be disposed to say that they 

 do not understand his explanations, but this cannot 

 be helped, unfortunately, and the only consolation 

 is that there is every reason to believe that Caius 

 Plinius Secundus, otherwise called Pliny the Elder, 

 did not understand them himself he only hoped 

 that some one else might. Here is what he said : 



" The wild fig, known by the name of caprificus, 

 never reproduces itself, though it is able to impart 

 to the other the principle of which it is thus 



