ON TROPICAL FRUITS 



Japanese races are incomparably superior to the 

 American — have such qualities as furnish a se- 

 cure foundation on which to develop a really 

 notable orchard fruit. 



Fig and Mulberry 



Another experiment that I have tried, as yet 

 unsuccessfully, with sub-tropical fruits, is the 

 hybridization of the fig and the mulberry. 



The fig, as is well known, grows abundantly in 

 California. Nearly every one has learned that for 

 many years after it was introduced, the fig was a 

 very poor bearer, blossoming abundantly but fail- 

 ing to ripen satisfactory fruit. The trouble, as was 

 presently discovered, was that the peculiar minute 

 species of wasp which is the sole bearer of pollen 

 from the male or so-called Capri fig to the pistillate 

 flowers, was not found in California. So soon as 

 this insect was imported from Italy, figs of good 

 quality were borne in abundance by hitherto 

 barren trees. 



The fig has been under cultivation perhaps as 

 long as any other fruit, and it is exceedingly vari- 

 able when grown from seed. 



I have grown seedlings in abundance, but 99 

 out of 100 produce worthless fruit. 



You plant seeds of the white -fig and you are 

 quite as likely to get black or brown figs as white 

 ones. 



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