BIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FIGS. 977 



Smyrna figs and found that the wasps had ah"eady entered 

 them and were moving over the stigmas of the flowers. 

 Still, not a single fig that had not been pollinated by hand 

 developed that season, although probably a thousand 

 wasps had been let loose in one place among the fig trees. 

 If irritation alone would cause maturity, we would hardly 

 have failed to receive at least a couple of mature figs 

 through the visit of the wasps. The quality of the seed- 

 lings grown by myself and Mr. Maslin have, on the 

 contrary, shown that pollination actually takes place. 



We may, therefore, with a fair degree of certainty, 

 establish the following facts : 



1. The visit of the wasps to the female flowers of the 

 Smyrna figs is powerless to produce fertility or maturity, 

 except accompanied by pollination. 



2. The gnawing of the wasps on the scales of the 

 eye, or the mere irritation of the flowers does not produce 

 a flow of sap sufficient to stimulate the fig in any unusual 

 way. 



The Effects of Capr iff cation. — Caprification can, there- 

 fore, only be effective and profitable in varieties which 

 contain a majority of developed female flowers. If such 

 figs are not caprificated they will drop off, shortly after 

 the receptivity of the female flowers is past. On such 

 figs the immediate effect of caprification is : first, the set- 

 ting and the coming to full maturity of the fig receptacle 

 (the fig) ; second, the development and maturity of the 

 female flowers and their ovaries and seeds. Another im- 

 portant effect of caprification is the dropping at full 

 maturity of caprificated figs, or rather of figs in which 

 caprification has been successful. x\ll Smyrna figs drop 

 of themselves when ripe, while all other fig varieties in 

 which caprification is not an absolute necessity, must be 

 cut or pulled from the tree at harvest time, as they will 



2d See., Vol. V. (63) January 11, 1896. 



