9l8 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



and must be considered either as more highly developed 

 gall flowers, which, bereft of the Blastophaga influence, 

 have partially regained their original structure, but which 

 just on that account have lost the capability of producing 

 galls; or they may be considered as degenerated female 

 flowers which have lost their fecundity by inertion — in 

 other words, by not being pollinated for ages, so to say — 

 in the same way as many other cultivated flowers have 

 degenerated. I am inclined to consider the latter as the 

 more probable, though at present no direct proof can be 

 given. That the great majority of the flowers in our 

 edible figs (except the Smyrna race) is different from the 

 true female flowers, both in structure and nature, is un- 

 doubted, whether we assign as a cause one or the other 

 of the above theories. These mule flowers never reach 

 any botanical maturity, and are really something half-way 

 between the true female flower and the true gall flower. 



The mule flowers are characterized by an imperfect 

 stigma, by a style in length intermediate between that of 

 the gall and the female flower, by imperfect embryo, and 

 by the property of becoming fleshy, sweet and edible 

 without pollination. I have so far not found any in the 

 Smyrna figs, comparatively few in the second crop of the 

 San Pedro class, but almost exclusively occurring in the 

 first crop of this class. The stigma of the mule flowers 

 has no developed glands and is not receptive. 



Male Flowers in Edible -Figs. — It has frequently been 

 stated that male flowers are not found in edible figs, and 

 this must be considered as the rule. However, there are 

 some exceptions to this rule, and as the}^ are of great in- 

 terest, if not to the grower at least to the student, it may 

 be proper to mention the subject somewhat more in de- 

 tail. 



The male flower of the fis: was for a lonu;- time unknown 



