BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 93I 



less. As regards the figs on this tree which I did not 

 pollinate, I may state that nearl}^ all arrived at perfect 

 horticultural maturity. 



Seeds in the Common Edible Figs. — Under this class I 

 arrange, as has already been stated, all fig varieties with 

 only mule or with principally mule flowers, which set and 

 mature their figs without the aid of pollen. If the seeds 

 of such figs are examined under the microscope, it will at 

 once be seen that they are only seeds in appearance, but 

 not in reality. The}'- are mere glossy hulls of a yellow or 

 brown color, but with no kernels and embryo capable of 

 development. Even without the aid of a microscope this 

 may be ascertained by crushing the seeds with the point 

 of a knife. The shell will then be seen to collapse, the 

 interior being absolutely empty without any kernel. Al- 

 though I have examined many thousands of figs grown in 

 California during the past ten years or more, I have failed 

 in finding a single seed properly developed. I at first at- 

 tributed this alone to the former total absence of caprifigs 

 in this State. I now believe it to be due in equal degree 

 to the absence of or at least scarcity of female receptive 

 flowers in our figs, generally speaking. This same ob- 

 servation as regards the absence of seeds in common figs 

 has been repeatedly made in Europe. In France, Solms- 

 Laubach found no figs which contained developed em- 

 bryos (44). Gasparrini, however, found repeatedly seed 

 in several of the Italian figs. However, he says that in 

 the early figs, probably meaning first crop figs, he never 

 found any fertile seed or seeds with embryo. But in the 

 "pedagnuoli" of the white figs and of the Dottato he 

 found frequently fertile seed, even in places where capri- 

 fication did not take place. As has been previously stated, 

 he polHnated the flowers of the Lardaro variety, but did 

 not succeed in producing any more seed than what would 



