632 
Anyone cutting open a fig when it has attained about one-third 
its size will see the lowers in full development, but unlike those 
of most fruit-trees, they make no outward appearance, but are con- 
cealed within the fig on its internal surface. They are male and 
female—the tormer situated near the orifice, the latter in that Fart 
of the concavity next the stork—the flowers being’ concealed within 
the button-like fruit. consequently there is not the same opportunity 
for pollenation to take place with the aid of bees, wind, or birds, as 
is the case with most other fruits, and nature, having left nothing 
t Male Blastophaga (enlarged). Female Blastophaga (enlarged). 
unfinished, created and commissioned these little insects, which are 
now known as Blastophagas, to perform the mission of caprification. 
The method by which this is accomplished is to plant the wild Capri 
fig amongst the cultivated ones: the insects infest the wild sort, 
which it leaves to visit the domestic one, entering to the interior of 
the fruit by the orifice. This is a very ancient practice. It was 
mentioned by the earliest Greek writers on natural history, and some 
state that it was first used in the Islands of the Archipelago. Some 
writers also doubt its utility; but.the fact remains that the cultiva- 
tion of the Smyrna fig has proven a failure without the presence of 
the Blastophaga. 
