SMYRNA FIG CULTURE. 15 
OVIPOSITION BY BLASTOPHAGA. 
If the Blastophaga has entered a caprifig, a crop of which should 
at the time be in receptive condition, she finds no cuneuly in depos- 
iting her eggs. Authors differ as to the technique of the operation. 
The German botanist Count H. G. Solms-Laubach says she pushes 
cher ovipositor down through the duct in the style and thus places 
the egg in the ovary. Dr. Cunningham, the English botanist, in his 
memoir on the fertilization of Pieus roxburghi (5), says,. “The depo- 
sition must apparently take place, not in the style, but by means of 
jena of the upper surface of the ovary.” Another author 
says, ‘‘Should the fig entered prove to be a caprifig, she lays as many 
egos at the base of as enuyy male flowers as she can find and then 
dies.” 
Careful investigations by the writer confirm the view of Solms- 
Laubach. This view must be correct; otherwise the insect would be 
able to oviposit in the Smyrna and other edible figs (which she never 
does), and thus give us a collection of insects instead of seeds. 
After the insect reaches the interior of the caprifig she moves about 
over the mass of stigmas; curving the posterior portion of the abdo- 
men under and forward, she thrusts the ovipositor repeatedly down 
between the flowers, seeming to be guided entirely by the sense of 
feelmg rather than sight. Finally, after eight or ten attempts, she 
succeeds in pushing it down through the central duct of the style 
and rests for a minute or two while the egg is being ejected. 
When the insect 1s wandering over the flowers the ovipositor does 
not appear longer than the sheath. This apparently misled Dr. 
Cunningham, who states that the ovipositor is too short to reach the 
ovary through the style. When an entrance to the style is effected, 
the ovipositor is extended, telescopelike, to three times the usual 
length, which enables the insect to deposit her egg well down in the 
ovary. The style is white and translucent, and as the egg-laying 
instrument is yellow or amber colored it is plainly visible with a 
microscope of moderate power when pushed down into the ovary. 
Within two or three hours after oviposition in a flower the stigma 
and style turn brown, rendering it easy by opening a fig to determine 
that the work has been well done. 
CAPRIFIG SEEDS. 
The mammoni crop of the capri tree is the only one which has been 
observed to produce seeds, and then only in small numbers. The 
obvious reason for the presence of seeds is that this crop is pollinated 
by the Blastophaga of the preceding profichi crop. The profichi 
crop itself yields no seed, because the mamme figs preceding it have 
no viable pollen, although the pistils are provided with receptive 
stigmas. 
