By Sir Charles Miles Lambert Monck. 165 



though few in number, and small : and last year and this, a 

 few spring Figs. 



About the same time, I put into the same conservatory, a 

 plant of one of those kinds against my garden wall, which 

 were used to put forth spring Figs and cast them ; after a 

 year or two of growth, this began to bear, and failed in the 

 conservatory exactly as it had done in the open air. I now 

 felt certain, that the casting of the fruit was not owing to 

 defect of climate. This year, 1820, it put out an abundant 

 crop of spring Figs in March, they all dropped in May ; in 

 June it put forth another crop, these began to drop at the 

 end of September, and have continued to do so till now, 

 when the leaves are fallen. 



Having prepared you with this account, I come to my 

 remarks. 



When the failure of fruit in the conservatory as cer- 

 tainly as on the garden wall, made me sure that defect of 

 warmth was not the cause, I was led to suspect, from the 

 constant advance of the Figs to the same state, and as con- 

 stant failure when they came to it, that it was defect of set- 

 ting. I am no botanist, but know the stigmas, and the 

 stamens with their anthers, and the offices of each. This 

 spring, when the Figs on that Fig-tree in the conservatory, 

 which casts its fruit, were half grown, I cut one open, and 

 with the assistance of a microscope, found that it contained, 

 next the eye, many florets, having full sized anthers. The 

 remaining part of the Fig, was occupied by florets containing 

 each one stigma. These last florets were small in propor- 

 tion to the other kind, though much more numerous. The 



