vii OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES 85 



destitute, for we occasionally find Nature making 

 a transfer of what are primary causes, and being 

 generated from decay. To effect this purpose 

 the wild fig tree produces a kind of gnat. These 

 insects, deprived of all sustenance from their parent 

 tree at the moment that it is hastening to rotten- 

 ness and decay, wing their flight to others of 

 kindred though cultivated kind. There, feeding 

 with avidity upon the fig, they penetrate it in 

 numerous places, and, by thus making their way 

 into the inside, open the pores of the fruit. 



" The moment they effect their entrance, the heat 

 of the sun finds admission too, and through the-inlets 

 thus made the fecundating air is introduced. . . . 

 Hence it is that in the plantation of figs a wild 

 fig is usually allowed to grow, being placed to the 

 windward of the other trees in order that the 

 breezes may bear it upon them. Improving upon 

 this discovery, branches of the wild fig are some- 

 times brought from a distance, and bundles tied 

 together are placed upon the cultivated tree." 



From this account we can at least make out 

 that in Pliny's day, as in many places at the present 

 time, it was customary either to plant the wild fig 

 (caprifig) plant in the plantations, or to bring 

 branches of the caprifigs into the plantations at 

 the flowering season. Further, from his account 

 we see that it was known in his day, as well as in 



