FIG TREE. 
30 / 
bred small worms which change to a species of 
cymps *, peculiar to these trees. In October and 
November, these insects of themselves make a 
puncture into the second fruit, after which the au- 
tumnal figs fall ; but the winter fruit, or cratitires, 
remain, as we have observed, till May, and enclose 
the eggs deposited by the gnats when they pricked 
them. In May the third sort of fruit, called orni, 
begin to be produced by the wild fig trees. This 
is much bigger than the other two; and when it 
glows to a certain size, and its bud begins to open, 
it is pricked in that part by the cynips of the win- 
ter figs which are strong enough to go from one 
fruit to another to deposit their eggs. It some- 
times happens that the insects of the cratitires are 
slow to come forth in certain parts, while the orni 
in those very parts are ready to receive them. In 
this case the husbandman is obliged to look for the 
cratitires in another part, and fix them at the ends 
of the branches of those fig trees whose orni are fit 
to be pricked by the insects. If they miss the op- 
portunity, the orni fall, and the insects from the 
winter figs fly away. None but those who are well 
acquainted with the culture know the critical mo- 
ment of doing this ; and in order to know it, their 
eye is perpetually fixed on the bud of the fig ; for 
that part not only indicates the time that the insects 
are to issue forth, but also when the fig is to be suc- 
* Cynips psenes. Linn. Syst. Nat. Gmel. 
x 2 
