BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 955 



tion was a useless and ignorant proceeding, which should 

 be abandoned. " This operation," he says, " of which 

 some authors, both ancient and modern, have spoken with 

 admiration, appeared to me to be nothing else than a 

 tribute which man pays to ignorance and prejudice^ 

 Caprification is unknown in many parts of the Levant, in 

 Italy, in France and in Spain, and begins to be abandoned 

 in the Archipelago, where it used to be practiced, and 

 which, nevertheless, still produce excellent figs for eating. 

 If the operation was necessary, whether fecundation be 

 effected by the fertilizing pollen dispersed in the air in- 

 troducing itself into the mouth of the fig, or whether 

 nature makes use of a little fly to transmit it from one fig 

 to another, as is commonly believed,, it is evident that the 

 first fig in flower could not fecundate at the same time 

 those that have already attained a certain size, and those 

 which are only just appearing, in order to ripen two 

 months later." The knowledge which Olivier possessed 

 of caprification was in reality most superficial and defect- 

 ive, and some of his statements are even false and mis- 

 leading, and not worthy of quotation, except for the fact 

 that disbelievers in caprification have pointed to him as an 

 eminent botanist, who had conclusively proved the de- 

 lusiveness of the process in question. Olivier did not 

 even know that it was the caprifig which was used for 

 caprification, but stated that it was the common " figues 

 fleurs," the brebas, or first crop edible figs, which were 

 hung on the trees. This also appears again in the last 

 lines of his statement quoted above, beginning: " First 

 fig or flower," etc. His statement that caprification was 

 unknown in Italy and Spain is also (61) incorrect. 



In 1820, Giorgio Gallesio, a prominent Italian horticul- 

 turist, published his treatise on the fig. How far Gallesio's 

 statements were based on investigations in nature, are not 



