308 
FIG TREE. 
cessfully pricked : if the bud is too close, the fly 
cannot deposit its eggs; if, on the contrary, it is too 
open, the fruit falls to the ground. 
None of the wild figs are good to eat ; their chief 
use is to assist in ripening the domestic kind, and 
the manner in which this is effected is as follows : 
During the months of June and July, the peasants 
take the orni at the time their insects are ready to 
break out, and carry them to the garden fig trees ; 
if they miss the proper time, the orni fall, and the 
fruit of the domestic fig will in consequence prove 
barren, and fall also. The natives are so well ac- 
quainted with these precious moments, that, every 
morning, in making their inspection, they only 
transfer to their garden fig trees such orni as are 
well conditioned, otherwise they lose their crop. 
In this case, however, they have one remedy; which 
is to strew over the garden fig trees another plant in 
whose fruit there is also a species of insect, which in 
some measure answers the purpose. The country- 
men so well understand how to manage their orni, 
that the flies which proceed from them ripen their 
domestic figs in the space of forty days. 
The Greeks cannot be too much admired for the 
time and patience which they bestow to bring about 
this singular process. They may be seen, during 
more than two months of the year, busily employed 
in transporting the flies from one tree to another : 
it must be confessed, however, that they are well 
rewarded for their trouble, since a tree which, left 
