BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 92I 



these figs will develop perfect seeds without the aid of the 

 Blastophaga, as it is probable that they, as other figs will, 

 bring their male and female flowers to perfection at widely 

 different times, in other words, that when their female 

 flowers will be receptive, their male flowers will not yet 

 have developed their pollen. 



It must be clearly understood that edible figs possessing 

 male flowers are inferior to those which do not possess any, 

 and the presence of male flowers is without any import- 

 ance, from a horticultural point of view. The Blasto- 

 phaga cannot live in those figs, because they do not pos- 

 sess perfect gall flowers; the pollen cannot be utilized 

 for pollination or caprification, because there, is no prac- 

 tical way of getting it out of the fig and onto the flowers 

 of the next crop, and finally such figs are inferior for 

 eating, as the male zone is dr}^ and not eatable. 



In the caprifig we have three kinds of flowers. Male 

 flowers, which, on account of their time of ripening of 

 the pollen, can only pollinate female flowers of the suc- 

 ceeding crop. Female flowers which produce seed, but 

 which, on account of the early time at which they are 

 receptive, can only be pollinated from the pollen of the 

 preceding crop. Gall flowers, which resemble the female 

 flowers, but which are at no time receptive, and which 

 serve no other purpose than breeding places for the 

 Blastophaga wasp. The caprifig possesses also a purely 

 female plant with only female flowers. 



The edible figs consist of two or three distinct types. 



The Smyrna type (Ficus carica smirniaca), with only 

 female flowers, capable of producing seed by pollination. 



The Common type (Ficus carica hortensis), with prin- 

 cipally male flowers, neither capable of producing seed 

 nor able to serve as galls or home for the Blastophaga 

 wasps. 



