998 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



70. Gasparrini must be given full credit for being the first one to dis- 

 cover the cause of the failure of the Blastophaga to breed in the edible fig. 

 The insect cannot lay its eggs in the proper place in the ovarj'of the fig. 



71. This is also accepted by other botanists, who have lately investi- 

 gated the subject. Solros-Laubach and F. Miiller, the two most prominent 

 fig investigators now living, consider the fig as the female tree of the 

 caprifig. Gasparrini investigated at a time when the theory of evolution 

 was not yet conceived, and when species were believed to have been created 

 " distinct." 



72. According to Willkomm, there are 500 species of figs described. 

 And I may add they are all different from our Ficiis carica. 



73. The time differs according to the climatic condition of the locality. 

 In Italy caprificatiou is practiced in June. At Niles, California, the capri- 

 figs mature in the middle of July. In Lower California, I found the 

 BlastophagsB emerging from the figs of Ficus Palmeri in March, from what 

 must have been the first crop of that fig. A taer generation again 

 emerged in September. 



74. In the Baja California species of Blastophaga which inhabits Ficus 

 Palmeri, the wasps do not crawl through the eye of the fig, but cut a round 

 hole below the eye and thus escajae in the same way as they did from their 

 galls. Only, the hole made in the figs is larger than the hole in the gall. 



75. As h'ls been shown elsewhere this is not always the case. If there 

 are no caprifigs of proper size the wasp cannot lay her eggs. 



76. The closing of the eye by scales is a necessity. If the eye was 

 open the Blastophaga would find the fig full of other insects and the func- 

 tion in the fig flowers would be seriously, if not fatally, interfered with. 



77. No one should attempt to understand the process of caprification 

 except he is possessed of at least a preliminary knowledge of the structure 

 of flowers, and of the importance and functions of their principal parts. 



78. Solms-Laubach, I, p. 21, was the first one to correctly describe the 

 place in which the Blastophaga eggs are deposited. Gasparrini had in- 

 correctly believed that the eggs were deposited on the outside of the ovary. 

 Solms-Laubach demonstrated that it is deposited between the nucellus and 

 the integument. 



79. Professor Newton B. Pierce of the Agricultural Department in 

 Washington, who has observed caprification in Sicily, informs me that in 

 the vicinity of Palermo the caprifigs are always brought from the " hills." 



80. Solms-Laubach, I, p. 60, relates how a "Eottolo" of propichi in 

 Ischia freqi^eutly brings half a "lira." According to Leclerc, \). 16, c. p. 

 330, and Hanoteau et Letourneaux, p. p. 433, etc., the caprifigs sell in 

 Port Napoleon for 2 sous the dozen. 



81. By Professor N. B. Pierce. 



82. See the experiments of Gasparrini. 



83. How far the production of a limited quantity of seeds in the com- 



