30 - 
thus carried through the winter in condition to oviposit in the profichi 
of the following spring. 
As early as 1880 Mr. Gulian P. Rixford, of California, introduced 
three varieties of Smyrna figs and a single caprifig tree into that State. 
In 1885 Mr. E. W. Maslin, of California, planted Smyrna seeds taken 
from figs imported by the great wholesale grocery house of H. K. Thur- 
ber & Co., of New York, and presented: to Mr. Maslin for experimental 
purposes. He grew in four years large and flourishing trees, the trunks 
of which had in 1889 reached a diameter of from 4 to Ginches. In 1890 
the Division of Pomology of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture imported cuttings of the wild caprifigs from Smyrna, which arrived 
in excellent condition, a few even retaining and maturing fruit which 
had set before shipment. These immature fruits all contained caprify- 
ing Blastophagas, and the cuttings were distributed to twenty-seven 
persons in Florida, California, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mex- 
ico, and Arizona, those in Ghireenis at least eae root and growing 
with extraordinary rapidity. 
Several persons in California were already, or soon after became, 
vitally interested in the subject of fig caprification and in its absolute 
importance to the fig industry of California. Dr. Gustav Eisen, at that 
time connected with the Fancher Creek Nurseries, of Fresno, and later 
curator of biology in the California Academy of Sciences; Mr. E. W. 
Maslin, above mentioned; Mr. J.C. Shinn, of Niles; Mr. John Rock, a 
well-known nurseryman of Niles; Mr. Frank A. Kimball, of National 
City, and Mr. George C. Roeding, of Fresno, were especially interested. 
Mr. Shinn, through the assistance of a missionary in Syria, imported 
caprifigs containing Blastophagas and endeavored to establish them, 
but without success. Dr. Hisen studied the subject with great care, 
corresponded with Count Solms-Laubach, imported with his help cut- 
tings of a number of varieties of both Smyrna and caprifigs, and with 
the help of Mr. Rock, at Niles, established and has now growing several 
hundred Smyrna figs of large size and a number of caprifigs, while Mr. 
Rock has accomplished the interesting result of grafting several vari- 
eties of the Solms-Laubach cuttings of caprifigs upon a single Smyrna 
fig tree, thus producing a tree of great horticultural interest and possi- 
bly in the near future of much practical importance. Dr. Eisen pre- 
pared and published in 1896 an important paper, entitled ‘‘ Biological 
_ studies on figs, caprifigs, and caprification,” in the Proceedings of the 
California Academy of Sciences, Series II, volume 5, pages 897-1001. 
Mr. George C. Roeding, at Fresno, in the meantime had started a large 
orchard of Smyrna and caprifigs, comprising roughly more than 500 
trees, of which about 70 were caprifigs. In 1895, through European 
correspondence, Mr. Roeding introduced caprifigs from Europe con- 
taining Blastophaga, but failed to bring about its establishment or 
even, aS in former experiments, to secure the production of a single 
individual offspring from the imported stock on California soil. 
