BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 937 



female flower is certain, as in some varieties it yet depends 

 upon chance which flowers are to be gall flowers and 

 which are to remain female flowers. Those pierced by 

 the wasps develop into galls, those which are not pierced 

 remain female flowers. In our present caprifig the female 

 flowers, even if pierced by the ovipositer of the Blasto- 

 phaga, will never become gall flowers. 



This was the state of development of the wild fig when 

 man appeared to take an active part in the development 

 of the fig and in the production of new varieties, suitable 

 as food or luxuries. How this evolution by cultural selec- 

 tion must have taken place will be presently considered. 

 Here it may only be remarked that the mule flowers may 

 have originated in two different ways. Either they may 

 be explained as a degeneration of female flowers, which 

 have lost their power of producing seed, by not being 

 regularly pollinated, or they may have originated from 

 gall flowers which, from want of wasps, graduall}^ lost 

 the power of producing galls, or which lost that power 

 with increased sweetness and edibility of the receptacle. 

 The latter two theories combined seem to me the most 

 plausible. 



ORIGIN OF THE EDIBLE FIG. 



Like all other fruits cultivated by man, the fig tree, as 

 "we find it to-day in our orchards, improved and bearing 

 edible, luscious fruits, must have descended from wild 

 ancestors, less edible and less valuable for the use of man. 

 In most all other fruits it is easy enough to point out the 

 wild ancestors, as we yet find the original cherries, plums, 

 peaches, apples, pears, etc., growing wild in the for- 

 ests and fields of our respective continents. But with the 

 fig it is somewhat different. Our edible figs differ con- 

 siderably from the wild fig, the caprifig of course being 

 the only fig tree from which we may possibly suppose a 



