BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 94I 



through an increased production ol fertile seeds. This 

 theory was at once adopted by Professor Solms-Laubach 

 after he had in Java studied a number of wild fig species. 

 He had there discovered that most of these fig species pos- 

 sessed sexually separate individual trees. In other words 

 some fig trees produced fruits with mixed flowers, both 

 male and gall flowers, while other trees of the same fig 

 species produced only fruit with female flowers (33). 



According to this theory the caprifig produces two 

 sexually distinct trees. The male tree with male and gall 

 flowers and a few female flowers, and the female tree 

 with only female flowers. 



The existence of such a tree was not shown by Prof. 

 Mtiller, but it had already been luentioned and described 

 by the Italian investigators, Pontedera and Gallesio, the 

 former describing it as " Erinosyce," the latter as " fico 

 semi-mula." 



In his description Gallesio adds that this fig has no male 

 flowers, but only female flowers, which when fecundated 

 produce seed or become botanically ripe, while the pomo- 

 logical ripeness also takes place as an effect of the fore- 

 going fertilization (20). 



Gallesio's description has been doubted, though I think 

 that in this, as well as in his other classification of the 

 various forms of the caprifig, he is entirely correct. 



This theory is strengthened by the fact, already referred 

 to, that seedlings from Sinyrna figs, fertilized by the pollen 

 of the caprifig, do . to some extent show a distinction of 

 sexes on different trees. But an objection of some con- 

 sequence to this theorjA is borne out by the fact that not 

 all edible figs produce seeds, that some contain no fully 

 developed female flowers, and that some again contain 

 male flowers, the latter, however, rarely. Only in the 

 Smyrna tribe of figs do we find fertile seed in very great 



