BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 927 



previously. I consider this experiment absolutely con- 

 clusive. It shows: That the true type of Smyrna figs 

 does not set and mature fruit in California if left to them- 

 selves, but that the figs invariably fall off. That they 

 contain perfectly developed female flowers, receptive in 

 the end of July. Of these facts I had already satisfied 

 myself long before through microscopical study of the 

 fig flowers. ' 



That these flowers if pollinated will cause the fruit to 

 mature, while they themselves (the flowers) develop fertile 

 seed. Our experiment also proved that the pollen from 

 the caprifig tree is not and cannot be transferred by the 

 wind, or by other insects than the Blastophaga, to the 

 edible figs. As this caprifig tree had born ripe pollen 

 for years (it being ten years old or more) still not one 

 of the surrounding Smyrna figs had been pollinated 

 and had come to maturity before our experiment was 

 made. Still they grew so near to the caprifig tree that 

 their branches closely interlocked, almost forming one 

 single tree. The principal value of this experiment 

 depends upon this very fact and upon the age of the 

 trees, which were old enough to have matured fruit, if 

 they could have done so without pollination. 



Caprification is only one step further,, it is the pollina- 

 tion by the aid of a wasp, semiartificially introduced in 

 the fig by hanging the caprifigs in their immediate vici- 

 nity. An account of this experiment is found in the 

 '' Annual Report of the State Board of Horticulture of 

 the State of California, 1891, page 230 to 231." The 

 account is substantially correct, but the part relating to 

 the Blastophaga contains some errors which will be noted 

 in a different place. The figs so pollinated were exhibited 

 by Mr. James Shinn at the Horticultural Convention in 

 Marysville, also by E. W. Maslin at the rooms of the 



