2 BULLETIN 732, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



whereas there is a good profit in growing such figs for one-half that 

 price. When American-grown Smyrna figs can be put on the mar- 

 ket at 15 cents a pound retail, the consumption will be greatly 

 increased. The field will therefore be a promising one for many 

 years to come. 



The pollination of Smyrna fig flowers by the fig insect BlastopJiaga 

 f series is one of the most obscure and complicated processes known to 

 botanists. Caprification was little understood and even considered 

 unnecessary by most of the leading botanists and horticulturists 

 of Europe almost up to the beginning of the present century. They 

 believed it to be the result of ignorant superstition on the part of 

 the inhabitants of Asia Minor. They did not believe that the fig 

 and caprifig were the female and male forms of a single dioecious 

 species, but persisted in classifying them as two separate species. 

 This belief was generally adhered to until the indispensable neces- 

 sity of caprification was demonstrated in 1885 by Dr. Gustav Eisen, 

 of Fresno, Cal. (8). 1 Therefore, it is not strange that the operation 

 was little known and appreciated even by people familiar with the 

 growth of common figs. 



ORIGIN OF SMYRNA FIG CULTURE. 



The fig family (Moraceae) is one of the largest in the vegetable 

 world. Botanists have identified and described more than 600 

 species, mostly tropical evergreens, frequently of gigantic size, often 

 climbers or epiphytic. Very few of the species produce edible fruits, 

 but many yield other useful products. One of them, Ficus elastica, is 

 an important rubber producer. 



All of the leading cultivated figs belong to the species Ficus carica. 

 Two or three other species producing edible fruits may be mentioned 

 here, but they are of little importance. Among them is the Ficus 

 sycomorus of Egypt, the fruit of which is consumed by the natives 

 of that country. Another, Ficus roxhurghii, native to the lower 

 slopes of the Himalaya Mountains in northern India, produces a fruit 

 of very large size, in massive clusters, but of not very high quality. 

 Ficus pseudocarica of northeastern Africa (the Italian colony of 

 Eritrea and Abyssinia) produces a small, dark-colored, sweet, quite 

 palatable fruit, the capri form of which is receiving considerable atten- 

 tion in California. 



The original home of the cultivated fig (Ficus carica) conforms 

 closely to that of the olive. Alphonse de Candolle (2) sums up the 

 subject in a few words, as follows: "The result of our inquiry shows, 

 then, that the prehistoric area of the fig covered the middle and 

 southern parts of the Mediterranean Basin, from Syria to the Ca- 

 naries. ' ' The fig has been cultivated in these regions from the earliest 



'The serial numbers in parentheses refer to the "Bibliography," pp. 41-43. 



