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This pollen, in their endeavours to lay eggs on the ovaries of 
the figs they penetrate, they scatter about and thus fertilise the 
female flowers. Should they have entered a Capri fig or mammoni, 
they puncture the ovaries and propagate their kind, whereas should 
fate have taken them to a Smyrna fig they die, leaving no offspring. 
Blastophaga Wasp (greatly enlarged). String of wild capri figs 
carrying the fertilising insect (reduced size.) 
In Smyrna fig plantations it is therefore important to also 
plant a few Capri figs or graft branches here and there with this 
kind, or to adopt the practice prevailing in the South of Europe 
and in Algeria, which consists in attaching the Capri figs to strings 
and hanging a few in each tree. 
Mr. J. Hawter, of the Blackwood Nurseries, secured some years 
ago the stock of Capri and of Smyrna figs introduced from Caii- 
fornia by the Department of Agriculture, and has since propa- 
gated them together with other kinds also capable of carrying the 
fertilismg wasp. ‘These were twice introduced from California and 
from Natal by the Department of Agriculture, but they will not be 
permanently established until the Capri and the Smyrna figs can 
be more widely planted. The State entomologist, Mr. Newman, has, 
however, located the fertilising wasp in figs grown in the vicinity 
of Fremantle, where they appear to have established themselves. 
Tur Siryrna Cuass embrace all those figs which are not self 
fertile and require external agency for the snecesstul production 
of their erop. 
Several varieties of figs are dried and exported from Smyrna. 
Most of them need the wild fig pollen and the agency of the 
Blastophaga grossorum wasp. 
Fruit large, turbinate-pyriform, flattened; short neck, ribs dis- 
tinct, orifice large, skin lemon yellow, pulp reddish amber, very 
sweet. Dries readily. 
