MORE ABOUT POLLINATION 317 



case. Figs are fruits which do not result from single flowers. 

 They result from the growth of whole inflorescences and of 

 the tissue which surrounds the inflorescences. Note the 

 lengthwise section of a green fig as shown in Figure 138. 

 The inside of the fig is lined by a large number of small 

 flowers. Entrance to these flowers is possible only by a 

 small opening at the top. All kinds of figs are diclinous 

 and the fig of commerce is practically dioecious, the pistil- 

 late flowers being sterile on some trees, while the staminate 

 flowers are sterile on others. This kind of fig is pollinated 

 by a small wasp whose life history is most extraordinary. 



The female wasps force their way into the inflorescences. 

 Usually in doing so they scrape off their wings on the 

 scales which guard the small opening. (See Figure 138, B.) 

 After laying eggs, they die without escaping. Those which 

 enter pistillate inflorescences (which are the figs we eat) 

 have no progeny. The styles of the fertile pistillate flowers 

 are so long that the wasp cannot deposit its eggs in a favor- 

 able place. (See Figure 138, C.) But in the staminate 

 figs (called caprifigs) there are numerous sterile pistillate 

 flowers with short styles. (See Figure 138, A.) In these 

 are deposited eggs which later hatch into wasps. The 

 male wasps die within the caprifigs in which they are 

 born, but the females escape, and carry with them the 

 pollen with which they became dusted as they crawled 

 about within the floral cavity. Of the escaping females, 

 those that later go into pistillate inflorescences are of service 

 in pollination, but produce no progeny ; those which enter 

 staminate inflorescences produce progeny, but are of no 

 service in pollination. 



Centuries before this process was understood, the fig 

 growers of the old Mediterranean countries used to cut 



