10 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



appears to us preferable to common oil, from the certainty and 

 speed of its operation. 



I cannot assert anything with certainty respecting the action 

 of stearic acid, as it is not soluble in water. Dissolved in ether 

 it had no effect on four receptacles ; and out of sixteen others, 

 when mixed with water, it promoted in some premature ripeness. 



Pour receptacles anointed with collodium, as many with petro- 

 leum, four others with benzoic acid, were all ripe on the ninth 

 day. Beer-yeast brought two out of four to maturity ; and pep- 

 sine did the same. Gallic acid ripened two out of three, acetic 

 acid three out of four, oxalic acid four out of five, acetate of iron 

 two out of four. 



Sulphate of iron showed little effect on five fruits bathed at the 

 mouth ; three of these in the course of ten days were near ma- 

 turity, two only increased in size ; but in another experiment on 

 three receptacles, on the fifteenth day they wereover ripe and, as 

 it were, decomposed. Still less effect was produced by sulphate of 

 copper, which, in the same space of time, was reduced to the 

 mere enlargement of the few fruits to which it was applied. A 

 single fruit out of four ripened with sulphate of potash ; and with 

 chloride of calcium four ripened out of seven. 



Chloride of potassium had a very weak effect on three fruits, 

 one of which only increased in size ; iodide of potassium, tincture 

 of iodine, and lime-water, applied to various figs, gave more or 

 less the same result. Azotic and hydrochloric acid, repeatedly 

 applied, always promoted ripening, although with less speed and 

 efficacy than sulphuric acid. Also arsenious acid in seven days 

 caused two fruits out of three to ripen, and caustic ammonia one 

 out of the same number. Mowers of sulphur applied to the mouth 

 of the fig did not adhere, and therefore had not time to manifest its 

 efficacy, supposing it had any ; but when mixed with glycerine, 

 an inert substance as regards this subject, out of four fruits 

 anointed at the mouth, after ten days one was ripe and two nearly 

 so. I bathed the mouth of twenty figs with pancreatic juice ; and 

 on the tenth day one only was ripe, eight were enlarged and 

 nearly ripe, the rest remained in static quo. This very weak 

 effect is apparently not attributable to pure pancreatic juice, 

 but rather to a very small quantity of hydrochloric acid, which 

 is mixed with it, though only in the proportion of a thousand 

 to one, according to the authority of Professor Schiff, from 

 whom I procured the liquid. Last year I wished to see if burning 

 or scalding the scales by introducing a red hot iron into the 



