THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CON\'ENTION. 185 



•discrimiuate between the budding capri figs in which she can deposit 

 eg'gs and the ordinary fig buds in which she can not. then no figs 

 would be caprified. no seeds would be formed, and soon the fig species 

 would die out, and with it the Blasfophaga, that can breed only in 

 the capri fig. 



EXPLANATION OF THE BREAK BETWEEN THE SPRING AND SUMMER GENERA- 

 TIONS OF CAPRI FIGS. 



Just here is to be found the explanation of the decided break that 

 <ill observers have noticed between the ripening of the spring generation 

 capri figs [proficlii) and the budding out of the young sununer genera- 

 tion capri figs {mammoni) . This break is so pronounced that when I 

 began studying caprification. one very acute observer, who had spent 

 several years studying horticulture in countries where caprification 

 was practiced, assured me that I must seek some other host plant for 

 the Blast ophaga at this critical season, and suggested that it would be 

 found breeding in some of the bushes that clothe the hills in the 

 ^Mediterranean region. The ink-gall insect, somewhat related to the 

 Blast ophaga, does go from one species of oak to another in its home 

 in Syria. 



However, already, in 1882, Dr. Paul ]Mayer had pointed out that 

 the insects that issue from very late profichi or late varieties can enter 

 the very first m'aminoni l)uds to pusli on the earliest varieties of 

 capri figs.* 



Countless thousands of Blastophagas do, however, come out of the 

 spring generation capri figs too early to enter even the earliest summer 

 generation capri fig buds {mammoni) , though just in season to enter 

 and pollinate the young buds on fertile fig trees.f 



BLASTOPHAGAS FORCED TO ENTER YOUNG FRUIT OF THE FERTILE FIG. 



Natural selection has. therefore, brought about that even an intelli- 

 gent Blastophaga would find no suitable capri fig to enter, but must 

 finally in dasperation crowd into an ordinary fig bud propelled, doubt- 

 less, by a powerful instinct prompting it to deposit its eggs. 



The break between the spring and summer generations of capri fig 

 fruits has. therefore, the object of compelling the Blastophagas to enter 

 and pollinate the young buds of the fertile fig tree, then pushing in 

 the greatest abundance. 



It must be remembered that in a state of nature wild fig trees of both 

 sexes would grow intermixed, and that the break between the spring 

 and summer generations of capri figs would in the absence of artificial 



*Maver. Paul, Zur Naturgeschichte der Feig-eninsecten (The Natural History of 

 the Fig Insect) in Mittheilungen a. a. Zool. Station zu Neapel, 3 : 551-590, pi. 25, 26, 

 Nov. 4. 1882. 



fit was a realization of this fact which caused me to rely entirely on winter 

 generation capri figs imamme) in attempting to introduce the Blastophaga into this 

 country. They arrive early in spring, and, if sent at the right time, find abundant 

 spring generation capri figs in receptive condition, whereas the spring generation 

 capri figs if shipped to California arrive just during the break between the spring 

 and summer generation of capri figs and stand a very small chance of finding a 

 breeding place. Then, too, such spring generation capri figs must be shipped during 

 hot weather, whereas the winter generation capri figs make the voyage in March. 



V^Tien I began to ship the winter generation capri figs to California I found there 

 was no adequate realization here of the great advantage of sending this generation 

 rather than the more abundant and better known spring generation. 



