G. GASPAETIINI ON TIIE RIPENING OF FIGS. 



13 



that is to say, four times as much as in an unripe state, when the 

 oil was applied. The others, to which oil was not applied, had 

 only increased a few millimetres, and were still green, hard, sour, 

 and milky. The tree, moreover, had no ripe fruit, but a few only 

 slowly increasing in size and advancing to natural maturity. 

 Consequently the oil and other exciting substances manifested 

 their power sensibly in the increase both of size and weight ; and, 

 it being granted with respect to weight, after the example adduced, 

 that the ratio of 1:5 cannot be considered constant, there remains 

 a great difference of weight at the state of maturity. Difference 

 of weight, whether in natural maturation, or under the excite- 

 ment of the agents above mentioned, arises only, in great part, 

 from the lymph which flows to the fruit and remains there. It 

 dilates the cells, fills up the cavities, facilitating the transformation 

 of starch into sugar, the development of the chlorophyll into two 

 colouring-matters, yellow and blue, &c. : during these processes 

 there is an exhalation of much carbonic acid at all hours of the day. 

 This appears clear by comparing under the microscope the analo- 

 gous cells of the different organs and tissues of the unripe fig, 

 when it has been anointed, and in the ripe fig. In the second 

 state they are at least three times as large as they were at the 

 time of anointing. If it be asked whether natural maturation or 

 the excitement of artificial agents has any relation to the forma- 

 tion or increase of the seminal embryo, I must answer negatively. 

 The truth is, that in the height of summer the pedagnuoli quite 

 unripe, green, and full of milk, with the luxuriant ruddy florets, 

 possess already the embryo well formeci though tender and ready 

 to be affected by the action of the substances which promote ma- 

 turation. But they produce the same effect on the jioroni, which 

 are always sterile (that is to say, without any seminal embryo), 

 and on the latest fruit (cimaruoli), which are likewise sterile. 



In conclusion, the experiments of the past year, with respect to 

 the way in which the oil of olive, in the first place, and in the 

 second the other oils and fatty matters, not to mention the sul- 

 phuric acid and petroleum, promote maturation, put us in the way 

 of approximating more nearly to the explanation of the phenome- 

 non, establishing, as they do, two important facts. The one is, that 

 the oil does not operate by disturbing on the one hand the respi- 

 ration, and on the other the normal and free action of light and air 

 on the cuticle, and consequently the aqueous exhalation, blocking 

 up, as it were, the cortical pores (which has not yet been shown by 



