BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 933 



mere shells without kernel. When this class of figs are 

 found to contain some seeds with developed embryo, it is 

 to be explained by the presence among the mule flowers 

 of perfect female flowers, which again have been brought 

 to development only by the introduction of pollen, either 

 by the Blastophaga wasps or by some other means. 



Parthenogenesis or seed -development without pollen 

 has been proven to exist in at least one tropical fig, Ficus 

 Roxhiiro-hii; here, however, only by excitement caused 

 by the sting of a Blastophaga, without pollination. That 

 this is not the process of seed production in the Smyrna 

 tribe of our edible fig is absolutely and conclusively proven 

 by the experiments of Mr, E. W. Maslin and myself. 

 We produced seedlings from Smyrna fig seeds which all 

 when arriving at maturit}^ proved to b^ hybrids between 

 the edible Smyrna and the wild caprifig. This hybrid- 

 ization could of course not possibly have taken place ex- 

 cept by the introduction of pollen to the female flowers. 

 If their seeds had developed by parthenogenesis the seed- 

 lings would not have been hybrids but would have been 

 varieties of the Smyrna fig. The seeds were of course 

 taken from imported Smyrna figs, which had been capri- 

 ficated in A'idin. The very fact that hybrid figs were 

 produced on' the seedlings showed conclusively that the 

 mother figs had been caprificated with wild pollen, and 

 that the process had been effective. 



FLOWERS IN OTHER FIG SPECIES. 



In connection with what has been said above, it maybe 

 of interest to shortly consider the structure of the fruits 

 of other fig species. Those who wish to more especially 

 study the flowers of the fig, we refer to the special works 

 enumerated in the "Literature." Here we can only 

 mention this subject in a passing way. In a great num- 



