AnseJP°tur' i92iarm' }     £m Pineal  Fallacies  (And  Others).  62g 
Empirical  Reasoning. — "What  could  be  more  conclusive  than 
that  this  blessing  of  the  fig  orchards  by  the  holy  man,  and  the  cere- 
mony performed,  resulted  in  the  bountiful  fig  crop?  Self-apparent 
it  was,  because  fig  orchards  not  thus  blessed  were  comparatively 
barren. 
"We  know  now,"  said  my  informant,  "that  the  wild  fig  is  the 
male,  the  fruit-bearing  fig  being  the  female,  and  that  the  spores 
that  fertilized  the  fruit  were  carried  from  the  male  to  the  female 
fig  by  the  insect  that  escaped  from  within  the  flower  of  the  wild 
fig.  Now,  each  orchard  carries  a  number  of  wild  fig  trees.  No 
longer  is  the  blessing  of  the  priest  necessary." 
Continued  the  educated  Turk,  my  companion :  "Some  years  ago 
came  a  demand  from  America  for  many  thousand  young  Turkish 
fig  trees.  These  were  gathered  and  forwarded — but,"  said  the  Turk, 
"the  Smyrna  fig  will  not  be  profitably  raised  until  America  gets  the 
Turkish  insect  that,  escaping  from  the  young  flower  of  the  barren 
fig  tree,  accomplishes  the  fertilization  of  the  fig." 
Apple  Trees  and  Fish. — When  the  apple  trees  bloom  in  the 
springtime  on  the  islands  of  Lake  Erie,  the  bass  bite  best.  The 
question  comes  at  once  to  an  observing  empiricist,  "What  connection 
is  there  between  the  fish  in  the  water  and  the  flower  on  the  tree?" 
He  might  rationally  surmise  that  the  influence  of  the  fish  makes  the 
tree  blossom,  or  that  the  blossoms  of  the  tree  bring  the  fish  to  the 
shoal.  The  man  of  science  might  perceive  that  the  same  warm  sun- 
shine that  bring?  blossoms  to  the  tree  also  entices  the  fish  from  the 
cold  depths  of  the  lake,  to  spawn  in  the  warm  water  of  the  shallows. 
Apple  Tree  and  Morel. — Turn  now  your  attention  to  the  Ken- 
tucky apple  orchard.  Behold,  when  blooms  the  apple  tree,  the 
morel  (an  edible  fungus)  springs  in  abundance  from  about  the  base 
of  the  tree.  Reasoning  empirically,  one  might  say  that  the  bloom 
of  the  apple  tree  awakens  the  morel  from  out  the  earth.  Another 
might  perhaps  reverse  the  thought,  asserting  that  the  morel's  influ- 
ence makes  the  apple  tree  bloom.  Simple  is  this  reasoning,  but 
yet  the  question  remains  unanswered  why  the  morel  rises  under  the 
blossoming  apple  tree  and  not  under  the  honey-locust  but  a  short 
distance  away. 
Mystery  of  the  Morel. — Take  now  this  same  morel.  Go  into 
the  deep  woodland  about  tne  time  it  appears  in  the  apple  orchard. 
