36 



Annals of Horticulture. 



reach. It is gratifying to know that the California prune is 

 winning a reputation. This is said to be due to the method of 

 curing. The California product is dried in the sun, while the 

 foreign prune is cooked in the curing process. The olive, 

 also, is yearly attracting more attention. 



The most interesting departure in California horticulture 

 for the year is the successful importation of the fig-wasp 

 Blastophaga grossorum (Cynips Psenes, Linn,) from Syria. 

 The fig is a hollow fleshy body, upon the interior of which are 

 borne unisexual flowers, the staminate or male flowers being 

 confined to a narrow area near the opening and not usually 

 maturing until the pistillate flowers have passed their receptive 

 stage. The fig is therefore practically incapable of pollinat- 

 ing itself, yet it is commonly supposed that early maturity of 

 the fruit and the development of the best quality depend upon 

 the fertilization of the minute flowers. The wild fig or caprifig 

 under certain conditions bears an abundance of pollen, and 

 this and the cultivated fig practically stand to each other in 

 The the relation of male and female plants. The fig-wasp lives in 

 wasp" the caprifig, one brood depositing an egg in the ovary of each 

 pistillate flower and then dying within the fig. The larva de- 

 velops at the expense of the ovule, and the resulting wasp 

 subsequently pollinates the flowers of a succeeding crop of 

 figs during the same year. In most fig-growing countries, the 

 growers plant the caprifig among their figs or more commonly 

 hang branches of it in the trees. This process of pollination 

 is known as caprification, and a large special literature exists 

 upon the subject.* It is one of the most interesting instances 

 known of the mutual adaptation of insects and flowers. It is 

 still a moot point if caprification is always essential to the best 

 results in fig-culture. Several important researches have pro- 

 nounced against it, but it nevertheless appears to possess de- 

 cided value in many instances. Caprification is employed in 

 the growing of the Smyrna figs of commerce, and it is true 

 that the California product is inferior to them, selling for only 

 about a third as much. The importation of the fig-insect, 

 therefore, becomes an event of great interest, and the experi- 

 ment will be eagerly watched by scientists and horticulturists 

 alike. The insect was introduced by James Shinn, of Niles, 



*The student will find a succinct account of caprification in Muller's Fertilization o 

 Flowers, 521. 



