ABSTRACTS. 



309 



This brochure also deals with propagation, soils and fertilisers, plant- 

 ing, cultivation, insects and diseases, pruning, picking, marketing, canning, 

 and evaporating. — G. H. 



Figs, Fertilisation or Caprification of. By H. Hitier (Rev. 

 Hort. pp. 85, 86 ; February 16, 1902). — A description of the life-career 

 of Blastophaga grossorum as followed by Dr. Trabut and explained by 

 M. Bouvier to the Societe Nationale d' Agriculture. The wild Fig bears 

 three crops in the year. In each one the fruit is inhabited by Blasto- 

 ■phaga, thus : (1) A summer generation, developed in the spring and 

 maturing in June ; (2) an autumnal one, which is developed during the 

 summer ; and (3) a winter one, starting late in autumn and maturing in 

 the early spring. The winter Figs contain only female flowers with a 

 short style, and in which the ovum is replaced by a male or female 

 Blastophaga, which passes the winter in this retreat and develops com- 

 pletely. The vermiform males issue first and make their way to the 

 fruits containing the still captive females, which eventually after fecunda- 

 tion escape and take flight to the spring Figs, within which they deposit 

 an egg against the embryo ovum. This egg hatches and the seed embryo 

 forms the food of the young Blastophaga. On quitting the summer 

 Fig the females traverse the male flowers then open near the orifice of 

 the fruit, and transfer subsequently the pollen to the female autumn 

 flowers, which are thus fertilised. In the Mediterranean region, where 

 the wild Fig grows, the autumn Figs cannot set or ripen without being 

 fertilised, and as these cultivated Fig trees only bear female flowers they 

 must perforce be fertilised from some outer source, i.e. by the wild Figs 

 and the agency of the Blastophaga. Hence the method pursued, which 

 is extremely ancient, and is called "caprification." As the Blastophaga 

 has been introduced into California and acclimatised there, the difficulty 

 of fertilisation no longer exists, and a large trade in Smyrna Figs has 

 been established. — G. T. D. (See also p. 241.) 



Flower Buds. By E. S. Goff (U.S.A. Exp. Stn., Wisconsin, Report, 

 1901, pp. 304-316 ; 16 figs.). — The investigations recorded in this 

 report were carried out with a view to discovering (1) the time of 

 flower formation in the Currant, Gooseberry, and Cranberry ; (2) the 

 variation in the period of flower formation between different varieties of 

 Apple growing in the same orchard ; (3) the influence of irrigation upon 

 the formation of flower buds in the Apple in time of drought ; and (4) the 

 extent to which flowers are formed the season before their expansion in 

 those fruit plants in which no flower buds can be distinguished in 

 autumn. 



The author found that the flowers were beginning to be formed 

 within the bud of the Pomona Currant by July 8, in the Black Currant 

 by August 3, and on October 30 the White Currant showed many flowers, 

 but little differentiation of parts. In the Downing Gooseberry flowers 

 were well started by August 30, while on October 30 the ovules had 

 begun to form. (The weather was warm and unusually dry, so that the 

 formation of flowers was possibly hastened.) 



