By Sir C. M. L. Monck, Bart. 



397 



became evident that the growth of wood was checked ; and, what sur- 

 prised me, and is the cause of my making this communication, the 

 fruit, which had only begun to turn yellow, or had only turned par- 

 tially so, recovered its green colour, and ripened. I observed that 

 some of the fruit which had not begun to turn yellow, when the 

 branches were ringed, became full sized when ripe : the others more 

 or less so in proportion apparently as they had become more or less 

 yellow, and therefore more or less certain to drop. It is to these 

 particulars that I wish to direct attention. The fig is, except in 

 the particular of bearing its flowers internally, similar in the struc- 

 ture of its fructification to the compound flowers, such as daisies, sun- 

 flowers, Chrysanthemums, and the course of flowering in most of 

 such plants is, for the florets next the edge of the disk to be the 

 first expanded, and afterwards the inner circles of florets in succession 

 from the edge to the centre. I take the fig to do the same, and the 

 supposition is confirmed by this, that, the fruit in ripening begins at 

 the eye and proceeds towards the stalk. I therefore conjecture that, 

 when the fruit begins to shew yellowness, the florets within have been 

 in part expanded and failed to set, and that, as the failure proceeds, 

 the yellowness becomes more general till all have failed, and then 

 the fruit drops : but if, when some certain proportion, perhaps half 

 or more, may have failed, the tree by any treatment, such as in- 

 creased temperature, with sun, and diminution of supply of moisture 

 to the root, or ringing, or caprification (as practised in the Levant) 

 is induced to set any florets, the fruit, the common receptacle, is no 

 longer in progress to inutility ; but becomes necessary to maintain 

 the fertilized florets : it must therefore cease to turn yellow, and 

 recover greenness, which as I have described was the case with my 

 trees. 



My object in this communication is to induce gardeners, who may 

 find their crop of figs begun to turn yellow, and therefore certainly 

 condemned to drop, if not saved by art, to repeat my experiment of 



