980 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Where Caprification is Practiced. — Nowhere is caprifi- 

 cation practiced more thoroughly, more constantly and 

 more successfully than in the home of the fig, Syria and 

 Asia Minor. In the vicinity of Smyrna, the foremost fig 

 region of the world, the figs of which are acknowledged 

 superior to any grown elsewhere, caprification is a neces- 

 sity. The fig crop without it would fail, at least the crops 

 from all varieties which produce the Smyrna figs of com- 

 merce. The fact that some figs may be produced with- 

 out caprification even there must be attributed to the same 

 cause which produces some fertile seed in the Italian figs 

 without direct fertilization by caprification. The real 

 cause of the setting of figs in either case is the presence 

 of caprifigs in the vicinity, from which the wasps carry 

 the pollen irregularly and sparingly, but sufficiently to 

 produce a few figs and a few seed. The importance of 

 caprifigs in S3'ria and Smyrna is so great that the}" often 

 command a higher price than the edible figs, and in cases 

 of failure of the caprifig crop sailing vessels are sent to 

 distant ports to the Grecian islands to bring whole cargoes 

 of the fruit. This bringing of cargoes of caprifigs at 

 great expense by intelligent growers must point to the 

 value of caprification there, and is in glaring contrast 

 with the occasional practice of some ignorant cultivators 

 in Greece and Italy, who, failing to procure caprifigs, 

 suspended galls of elm trees among their figs (87). As 

 the culture of figs followed the immigration of the Phoeni- 

 cians and later on that of the Arabs, so do we to this day 

 find caprification practiced in all countries formerly occu- 

 pied by those nations. That is along the north coast of 

 Africa in Algiers and Morocco, in the islands of the Med- 

 iterranean, Cyprus, Kreta, Sicily and the Malta group, 

 and further west in the southern parts of Spain and Por- 

 tu<Jfal. 



