■926 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



days of July. The experiment, I afterward learned, was 

 tried the year before in Fresno, and successfully produced 

 a few ripe Smyrna figs (40). On the 26th of July I re- 

 quested Mr. E. W. Maslin to accompany me to the Shinn 

 orchard, situated near Niles, not far from the San Fran- 

 cisco Bay (42). The only caprifig tree there possessed 

 a few very ripe fruit, large and pulpy, in which the pollen 

 was fully developed and very abundant. We shook the 

 pollen out in the palm of Mr. Maslin's hand, and from 

 there transferred it to the Smyrna figs, of which there 

 were various sizes. Not then knowing in what size the 

 flowers would be receptive, I pollinated various sizes, in 

 all about thirty figs, which were properly marked by 

 -Strings. Figs on all the three different varieties were 

 pollinated. As means to introduce the pollen we used a 

 goose quill, the' end of which was pared off obliquely. 



This open part of the quill was filled with pollen, then 

 pushed through the scales closing the eye of the Smyrna 

 fig and the pollen shaken down, in probably about one 

 thousand times larger quantity than was actually needed 

 to fertilize the fig. I found that figs of a certain size, 

 about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, allowed the 

 quill to readily penetrate, the scales on them giving away 

 quite readily at the slightest push of the quill. It was 

 not necessary to cut the scales or to open the eye artifi- 

 cially and violently, simply the pushing the quill in would 

 allow the pollen to drop down in the receptacle. Many 

 of the figs thus pollinated came to perfection as large, 

 ripe and luscious figs, in every way perfectly developed with 

 numerous perfect seeds. But out of the many thousand 

 similar Smyrna figs on the same as well as on immediately 

 adjoining trees, not one single jig that was not pollinated 

 by Mr. Maslin and myself came to maturity; all fell from 

 Ihe trees just as they had been doing during ten years 



