gi6 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



the few instances where male flowers have been found 

 in the edible figs. Hence the impossibility of the female 

 flowers in our edible fig being fertilized by the pollen of 

 the male flowers immediately above them. It is only the 

 female flowers of the following crop that could thus be 

 impregnated by the pollen. 



T/ie Gall Flowers. — The gall flowers, which occur in 

 abundance in all caprifigs of all crops, are in reality noth- 

 ing else than female flowers which have been transformed 

 in order to accommodate the requirements of a small 

 wasp, the Blastofhaga f series. These gall flowers are 

 not able to produce seed, though they in general aspect 

 resemble the female flower. 



The petals in the gall flowers are smaller and more 

 unequal in size. The chief difference, however, between 

 these flowers and the female flowers is found partly in 

 the stylus of the pistil, which is not as elongated as in the fe- 

 male flowers, and partly in the stigma, which is very much 

 smaller and entirely wanting the glands at its upper mar- 

 gin. The gall flowers cannot be pollinated, or if they are, 

 neither does the pollen develop pollen tubes nor does the 

 embryo or egg in the lower parts or ovary become fertile. 



While it is true that the gall flowers do not produce 

 seed, still it is a fact that they develop to a certain extent, 

 if punctured by the wasp, or more correctly after the o^g^ 

 of the Blastophaga wasp has been properly deposited. 

 They then develop into galls, that is the lower part of the 

 stigma swells up, the integuments of the embryo -sac 

 harden, forming a glossy and brittle covering as a protec- 

 tion for the larvcC of the wasp. 



Those gall flowers which are not thus wounded by the 

 Blastophaga ^gg, do not develop any further, but at once 

 wither and shrink up. Gall flowers are found in all wild 

 fig species, though in some species their nature is not ap- 



