i 
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tumn ffiall be found to ftop its bleeding in one day’s 
time, or lefs ; whereas that cut in the fpring will often 
flow a week or more, and the wound will be propor- 
tionably longer before it heals. 
Of late years there has been fome of thefe trees 
planted againft fire-walls, which have fucceeded very 
well where they have been properly managed •, but 
where they have been kept too clofe, and drawn by 
glaffes, they have not produced much fruit •, therefore 
whenever this is pradifed, the heat fhould not be too 
great, nor the glaffes, or other covering, kept too 
clofe, but at all times, when the weather is favourable, 
a good fhare of free air fhould be admitted i and if 
the trees are young, that their roots are not-extended 
beyond the reach of the covering, they muft be fre- 
quently watered when they begin to fhew fruit, other- 
wife it will drop off-, but old trees, whofe roots are 
extended to a great diftance, will only require to have 
their branches now and then fprinkled over with wa- 
ter. If thefe trees are properly managed, the firft crop 
of fruit will be greater than upon thofe which are ex- 
pofed to the open air, and will ripen fix weeks or two 
months earlier, and a plentiful fecond crop may alfo 
be obtained, which will ripen early in September, and 
fometimes in Auguft, which is about the feafon of 
their ripening in the warmer parts of Europe •, but the 
fires fhould not be ufed to thefe trees till the begin- 
ning of February •, becaufe when they are forced too 
early, the weather is frequently too cold to admit 
a fufficient quantity of frefh air to fet the fruit-, 
but the covers fhould be put over the trees a month 
before, to prevent the fhoots from being injured by 
the froft. 
It may not be improper in this place to mention the 
great pains which the inhabitants of the Levant are at 
in the culture of their Figs -, and without which (it is 
generally faid by all the travellers who have written on 
this fubjed, as alfo by Pliny, and other old naturalifts) 
their fruit will fall off, and be good for nothing. I 
fhall here fet it down, as I find it in the travels of 
Monf. Tournefort, chief botanifl to the late king of 
France. 
“ Pliny, fays he, obferved. That in Zia they ufed 
“ to drefs the Fig-trees with much care •, they ftill 
« continue to do fo. To underftand aright this huf- 
« bandry of Figs (called in Latin, Caprificatio) we 
“ are to obferve, that in moft of the iflands of the 
“ Archipelago, they have two forts of Fig-trees to 
“ manage the firft is called Ornos, from the old 
“ Greek, Erinos, a wild Fig-tree -, or Caprificus, 
« in Latin ; the fecond is the domeftic, or garden 
tc Fig-tree ; the wild fort bears three kinds of fruit, 
« Fornites, Cratitires, and Orni, of abfolute necelfity 
« towards ripening thofe of the garden Fig. 
44 The Fornites appear in Auguft, and continue to 
44 November, without ripening ; in thefe breed fmall 
44 worms, which turn to a fort of gnats, no where to 
44 be feen but about thefe trees. In Odober and No- 
44 vember thefe gnats of themfelves make a pundure 
44 into the fecond fruit, which is called Cratitires, 
44 and do not fhew themfelves till towards the end 
44 of September and the Fornites gradually fall away 
44 after the gnats are gone ; the Cratitires, on the 
44 contrary, remain on the tree till May, and inclofe 
44 the eggs, depofited by the Fornites, when they 
44 pricked them. In May the third fort of fruit be- 
44 gins to put forth from the fame wild Fig-trees 
44 which produced the other two this is much 
44 bigger/ and is called Orni when it grows to a 
44 certain fize, and its bud begins to open, it is pricked 
44 in that part by the gnats of the Cratitires, which 
«• are ftrong enough to go from one fruit to the 
44 other, to difcharge their eggs. 
44 It fometimes happens, that the gnats of the Crati- 
44 tires are flow to come forth in certain parts, while 
44 the Orni in thofe very parts are difpofed to receive 
44 them ; in which cafe the hufbandman is obliged to 
44 look for the Cratitires in another part, and fix them 
« at the end of the branches of thofe Fig-trees, whofe 
44 Orni are in fit difpofitiop to be pricked by the gnats j 
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44 if they mifs the opportunity the Orni fall, and the 
“ gnats of the Cratitires fly away. None but thofe 
44 that are well acquainted with this fort of culture, 
44 know the critical minutes of doing this ; and in 
44 order to it, their eye is perpetually fixed on the 
44 bud of the Fig ; for that part not only indicates 
44 the time that the prickers are to iffue forth, but 
44 alfo when the Fig is to be fuccefsfully pricked j if 
44 the bud be too hard, and too compad, the gnat 
44 cannot lay its eggs, and the Fig drops when this 
44 bud is too open. 
44 Thefe three forts of fruit are not good to eat ; 
44 their office is to help to ripen the fruit of the gar- 
44 den Fig-trees, in manner following : during the 
44 months of June and July, the peafants take the Orni 
44 at a time that their gnats are ready to break out, 
44 and carry them to the garden Fig-trees ; if they do 
44 not nick the moment, the Orni fall, and the fruit 
44 of the domeftic or garden Fig-tree not ripening, 
44 will, in a very little time, fall in like manner. The 
44 peafants are fo well acquainted with thefe precious 
44 moments, that every morning, in making their 
44 infpedion, they only transfer to their garden Fig- 
44 trees fuch Orni as are well conditioned, otherwife 
44 they lofe their crop. It is true, they have one re- 
44 medy, though an indifferent one, which is, to 
44 ftrew over the garden Fig-trees the Afcolimbros, 
44 a very common plant there, and in whofe fruit 
44 there is a fort of gnats proper for pricking ; 
44 perhaps they are the gnats of the Orni, which are 
44 ufed to hover about and plunder the flowers of this 
44 plant. 
44 To fum up all in one word. The peafants fo well 
44 order the Orni, that their gnats caufe the fruit of 
44 the garden Fig-tree to ripen in the compafs of forty 
44 days. Thefe Figs are very good green ; when they 
44 would dry them, they lay them in the fun for fome 
44 time, then put them in an oven to keep them the 
44 reft of the year. Barley bread and dried figs are 
44 the principal fubfiftence of the boors and monks of 
44 the Archipelago but thefe Figs are very far from 
44 being fo good as thofe dried in Provence, Italy, 
44 and Spain •, the heat of the oven deftroys all their 
44 delicacy and good tafte ; but then, on the other 
44 hand, this heat kills the eggs which the prickers 
44 of the Orni difcharged therein, which eggs would 
44 infallibly produce fmall worms that would preju* 
44 judice thefe fruits. 
44 What an expence of time and pains is here for a 
44 Fig, and that but an indifferent one at laft ! I 
44 could not fufficiently admire the patience of the 
44 Greeks, bufied above two months in carrying thefe 
44 prickers from one tree to another. I was foon told 
44 the reafon, one of their Fig-trees ufually produces 
44 between two and three hundred pounds of Figs, 
44 and ours in Provence feldom above twenty-five. 
44 The prickers contribute, perhaps, to the maturity of 
44 the fruit of the garden Fig-tree, by caufing them to 
44 extravafate the nutritious juice, whofe veffels they 
44 tear afunder in depofiting their eggs ; perhaps too, 
44 befides their eggs, they leave behind them fome 
44 fort of liquor proper to ferment gently with the 
44 milk of the Fig, and to make their fleffi tender. 
44 Our Figs in Provence, and evenatParis, ripen much 
44 fooner for having their buds pricked with a Straw 
44 dipped in olive oil. Plumbs and Pears, pricked by 
44 fome infeds likewife ripen much the falter for it ; 
44 and the fleffi round fuch pundure is better tailed 
44 than the reft, It is not to be difputed but that con- 
44 fiderable change happens to the contexture of fruits 
44 fo pricked, juft the fame as to parts of animals 
44 pierced with any ffiarp inftrument. 
44 It is fcarce poffible well to underftand the antient 
44 authors who have treated of caprification (or huf- 
44 banding and dreffing the wild Fig-tree) if one is 
44 not well apprifed of the circumftances, the particu- 
44 lars whereof were confirmed to us not only at Zia, 
44 Tinos, Mycone, and Scio, but in moft of the other 
44 iflands.” 
Fig- 
