I ^^3 1i 



the writer has enumerated 22 fpecies : Linn^^ius 

 has however greatly reduced this number, in his 

 Species Plantarum, fince many are varieties effeded 

 by culture. That part of the hiftory of this tree, 

 which for many ages was fo enigmatical, and which 

 nothing but the dodbrine of the fexes of plants has 

 completely cleared up, namely the hufbandry or 

 caprification^ as fit is called, is more particularly 

 worthy of attention, not only as a lingular pheno- 

 menon in itfelf, but as it has furnifhed one of the 

 moft convincing proofs of the reality of the fexes 

 pf plants. Our limits will not allow us to detail 

 this fubjed ; in brief it is this : — It is now known, 

 ^hat the flowers of the fig-tree are fituated within a 

 pulpy receptacle, which we call the Fig^ or fruit 

 of this tree ; of thefe receptacles, in the wild fig- 

 tree, fome have male flowers only, and others 

 have male and female, both diilind, though 

 placed in the fame receptacle. In the garden, or 

 €ultivated fig, thefe are found to contain only fe- 

 male flowers \ which are fecundated by means of 

 a kind of gnat, (Cynips Pfenes^ Syft. Nat. 919.) 

 bred in the fruit of the wild fig-trees, which pierces 

 that of the cultivated^ in order to depofit its eggs 

 within ; at the fame time diffufing within the re- 

 ceptacle xht farina of the male flowers. Without 

 this operation the fruit may ripen, but no effe^ive 

 feeds are produced : hence the garden fig can only 

 be propagated by layers and cuttings, in thefe 

 countries, where the wild fig is not known. The 

 jprocefs of thus ripening the fruit, in the oriental 

 countries, is not left to nature, but is managed 



with 



