878 General Notes. [August, 
cators. The manner in which caprification or fertilization of the 
cultivated fig is effected through these insects has often been 
welt upon, and was discussed by the earliest writers. Three 
important works have recently been published on the subject, one 
by Solms-Laubach, one by Fritz Miller, and one by G. Arcan- 
geli. Solms’ work! is the most exhaustive, and to give some 
idea of the way in which the female flowers of the fig are fertilized 
by the male flowers of the caprifig, we quote the following from 
a notice of the work in Nature : 
“With regard to caprification, it was known to the ancients 
that an insect inhabits the fruit of the caprifig, and they also dis- 
covered that the visits of this insect to the fruit of the fig exer- 
cised some beneficial influence, either in accelerating ripening or 
in hindering the fall of the fruit before it was ripe. Consequently 
branches of the caprifig were hung on the fig trees at a certain 
season to insure these visits, and effect what was termed caprifi- 
cation. The insect that operates in this manner is a small hy- 
menopter (Blastophaga grossorum Grav. syn. Cynips psenes Linn), 
the complete annual cycle of development of which takes place 
within the three crops of fruit of the caprifig, whilst only one gen- 
eration visits the fig, and that, as will be seen, to no advantage to 
the insect itself. In order to render what follows easily under- 
stood, we will give the present Neapolitan names of the three 
i i through the winter 
crops of the caprifig. The fruits that hang a neha 
of this generation visits not only the mammoni, es it her eggs 
of the fig, if there are any at hand, in order to S that dhe it 
Now, the remarkable fact in connection with per < er edible Pr 
- 
convey pollen to the female flowers, perishing in the ee ot 
thermore, the insect that develops in the mammont depo finds an 
in the mamme, and the generation proceeding therefrom end 
asylum for its progeny in the profichi. Respecting yet. the 
‘tion of the Blastophaga, Graf Solms claims to have wees the in- 
portant discovery that the eggs must be deposited wit es 
1 Die Herkunft, Domestication und Verbreitung des Gewohnlicher ne 
‘(Ficus carica L.) Von Grafen zu Solms-Laubach. Göttingen, 1 oe 
