TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION. 
29 
tion in order that the subsequent importation of the Blastophaga by the 
Division of Entomology would have a reasonable chance' of , success. (See 
Annual Report Secretary of Agriculture, 1890, page 414.) 
During the winter of 1897-98 the writer, after extensive correspondence 
with the board of trade of San Francisco, with Dr. Eisen, Mr. Roeding, and 
Mr. Maslin, decided that the time had come to make a serious and well- 
organized attempt to bring about the desired result. He, therefore, laid the 
matter before the Secretary of Agriculture and was authorized to undertake 
the work. He had first thought of having Dr. Eisen, so well qualified by 
virtue not only of his scientific attainments but also on account of his especial 
interest in this subject and his well-known investigations and conclusions, 
commissioned to visit Mediterranean regions for the purpose of collecting 
additional varieties of caprifigs, of sending over ripe gall figs, and of bring- 
ing to this country, if necessary, an entire transplanted and healthy caprifig 
tree. But it happened that about this time Mr. Walter T. Swingle, a well- 
known botanist in the employ of the Department, was in south Europe, at 
his own expense, studying at the International Zoological Station at Naples. 
It happened also that Mr. Swingle was greatly interested in the study of 
the caprifig and in the caprification by Blastophaga. It was decided, there- 
fore, to save the expense of sending a man from America by asking the 
assistance of Mr. Swingle. The latter, at some personal expense, began in the 
spring of 1898 to send a number of caprifigs containing gall insects to the 
Department in Washington for shipment to California, and made a careful 
study of the question of the different varieties of caprifigs. In April of that 
year the writer, under commission from the Secretary of Agriculture, visited 
Mexico on an investigating trip and came northward through California, vis- 
iting all of the localities to which caprifig cuttings had been sent by the 
pomologist in 1890. On reaching Fresno he was at once greatly impressed 
by the conditions existing at Mr. Roeding’s place, and with the energy, intel- 
ligence, ability, and general interest in the subject shown by Mr. George C. 
Roeding himself. Figs growing there, although only six years old, impressed 
the Eastern visitor with a belief that they could not be less than twenty 
years old, so extraordinary had been their growth. They were large, healthy, 
and luxuriant trees. Right through the center of the Smyrna fig orchard ran 
a long row of caprifigs, the branches of the two varieties almost interlocking. 
Moreover, Mr. Roeding had planted in the foothills of the mountains, some 
miles away, other caprifig cuttings in order to simulate as nearly as possible 
the climatic conditions under which the caprifig grows most successfully in 
the Orient. Communicating with Washington, the first shipment of capri- 
figs from Mr. Swingle fortunately arrived at Fresno while the writer was 
there. They had been sent from Naples, the locality in which Dr. Paul 
Mayr had made his studies. Mr. Swingle had adopted an ingenious and emi- 
nently successful method of packing. Each green caprifig was carefully and 
closely wrapped in tin foil, the end being covered with wax. On arrival at 
Fresno the female Blastophagas were seen to be emerging from the gall figs. 
Unfortunately, however, with them were a number of specimens of Philo - 
trypesis cciricce Hasselquist, the one figured and described by Paul Mayr as 
Ichneumon phycarius Cavolini. Mr. Roeding readily distinguished between 
the female Blastophaga and this parasite and destroyed all the parasites 
noticed. By the writer’s advice a caprifig tree was inclosed in a thin cloth 
tent and subsequent sendings of caprifigs were placed in this inclosure and 
the Blastophagas were liberated. 
