•958 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



2. Does caprification cause late figs to set in greater 

 number? No. The conclusion is illogical. The ex- 

 periments only show that caprification had no effect on 

 the varieties experimented with — the Colombro, Lardaro 

 and Sarnese. 



3. Does the caprifig, by the assistance of its insects, 

 fecundate the female flowers of the late fig? No. His 

 experiments were partly defective, partl}^ insufficient, and 

 the conclusion drawn is illogical and incorrect. The 

 varieties experimented on were the last ones mentioned, 

 besides the Dottato. Gasparrini found seeds in figs not 

 caprificated, but as they had not been absolutely isolated, 

 they may have been pollinated, nevertheless. He explains 

 the production of seed without pollination by " partheno- 

 genesis." The fact, as has been already shown, that 

 seeds never form in edible fia;s scrowing in California and 

 Brazil, where the caprifig is not generall}^ distributed (68), 

 is sufficient evidence for rejecting parthenogenesis, and for 

 adhering to the pollination theory (69). 



4. Does the fly cause the setting and afterwards an 

 earlier maturity of the fig by the puncture it makes in it? 

 No. In this I fully agree, the experiments being appar- 

 ently conclusive (70). The general conclusions to which 

 Gasparrini came he summarises as follows: 



1. That to understand well the effects of caprification, 

 it is in the first instance necessary to know the nature of 

 the fig and of the caprifig, and what connection they have 

 with each other. We have seen that the caprifig is not 

 the male of the fig, as has been hitherto believed, but a 

 species so different from it that it may well be taken as 

 type of a new distinct genus. 



2. The structure of domestic figs, as well as of those 

 to which the caprifig is applied, is perfectly similar in so 

 far as concerns the organs of the flower, the structure of 



