168 



In the cultivated fig, these are found to 

 contain only female flowers, that are fecun- 

 dated by means of a kind of gnat bred in the 

 fruit of the wild fig-trees, which pierces that 

 of the cultivated, in order to deposit its eggs 

 within; at the same time diffusing within the 

 receptacle the farina of the male flowers: 

 without this operation, the fruit may ripen, 

 but no effective seeds are produced. Hence 

 it is that we can raise no fig-trees from the fruit 

 of our own gardens, having no wild figs to as- 

 sist the seed. They are consequently raised 

 by cuttings, or by layers. 



In many parts of the Grecian islands, the 

 inhabitants pay such attention to the caprifi- 

 cation of the cultivated figs, that they attend 

 daily for three months in the year to gather 

 these little flies from the wild fig-trees, and to 

 place them on the fig-trees in their gardens, 

 by which means they not only get finer fruit, 

 but from ten to twelve times the quantity: 

 thus one of the most minute insects is, by the 

 attention of man, made a principal cultivator 

 of fruit. 



It is a curious fact, that fresh-killed veni- 

 son, or any other animal food, being hung up 

 in a fig-tree for a single night, will become as 

 tender, and as ready for dressing, as if kept 

 for many days or weeks in the common man- 



