a method used in the Levant, for ripening the fruit of the domestic fig-tree, by means of insects bred in that of the wild fig-tree.

The most ample and satisfactory accounts of this curious operation in gardening are those of Tournefort and Pontedera: the former, in his Voyage to the Levant, and in a Memoir delivered to the academy of sciences at Paris in 1705; the latter, in his Anthologia. The substance of Tournefort's account follows. "Of the thirty species or varieties of the domestic fig-tree which are cultivated in France, Spain, and Italy, there are but two cultivated in the Archipelago. The first species is called orni, from the old Greek erinos, which answers to caprificus in Latin, and signifies a wild fig-tree. The second is the domestic or garden fig-tree. The former bears successively, in the same year, three sorts of fruit, called fornites, cratitires, and orni; which, though not good to eat, are found absolutely necessary towards ripening those of the garden-fig. These fruits have a sleek even skin; are of a deep green colour; and contain in their dry and mealy inside several male and female flowers placed upon distinct foot-stalks, the former above the latter. The fornites appear in August, and continue to November without ripening: in these are bred small worms, which turn to a sort of gnats nowhere to be seen but about these trees. In October and November, these gnats of themselves make a puncture into the second fruit, which is called cratitires. These do not flow themselves till towards the end of September. The fornites gradually fall away after the gnats are gone; the cratitires, on the contrary, remain on the tree till May, and inclose the eggs deposited by the gnats when they pricked them. In May, the third sort of fruit, called orni, begins to be produced by the wild fig-trees. This is much bigger than the other two; and when it grows to a certain size, and its bud begins to open, it is pricked in that part by the gnats of the cratitires, which are strong enough to go from one fruit to another to deposit their eggs. It sometimes happens that the gnats of the cratitires are slow to come forth in certain parts, while the orni in those very parts are disposed 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 in a fit disposition to be pricked by the gnats. If they miss the opportunity, the orni fall, and the gnats of the cratitires fly away. None but those that are well acquainted with the culture know the critical moment of doing this: and in order..." 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 prickers are to issue forth, but also when the fig is to be successfully pricked: if the bud is too hard and compact, the gnat cannot lay its eggs; and the fig drops, when the bud is too open.

"The use of all these three sorts of fruit is to ripen the fruit of the garden fig-tree, in the following manner. During the months of June and July, the peasants take the ornit, at the time their gnats are ready to break out, and carry them to the garden fig-trees: if they do not nick the moment, the ornit fall; and the fruit of the domestic fig-tree, not ripening, will in a very little time fall in like manner. The peasants are so well acquainted with these precious moments, that, every morning, in making their inspection, they only transfer to their garden fig-trees such ornit as are well conditioned, otherwise they lose their crop. In this case, however, they have one remedy, though an indifferent one; which is, to throw over the garden fig-trees another plant in whose fruit there is also a species of gnats which answer the purpose in some measure."

The capriciousness of the ancient Greeks and Romans, described by Theophrastus, Plutarch, Pliny, and other authors of antiquity, corresponds in every circumstance with what is practised at this day in the Archipelago and in Italy. These all agree in declaring, that the wild fig-tree, caprificus, never ripened its fruit; but was absolutely necessary for ripening that of the garden or domestic fig, over which the husbandmen suspended its branches.—The reason of this success possibly may be, that, by the punctures of these insects, the vessels of the fruit are lacerated, and thereby a greater quantity of nutritious juice derived thither. Perhaps, too, in depositing their eggs, the gnats leave behind them some sort of liquor proper to ferment gently with the milk of the figs, and to make their flesh tender. The figs in Provence, and even at Paris, ripen much sooner for having their buds pricked with a straw dipped in olive-oil. Plumbs and pears likewise, pricked by some insects, ripen much the faster for it; and the flesh round such puncture is better tasted than the rest. It is not to be disputed, that considerable changes happen to the contexture of fruits so pricked, just the same as to parts of animals pierced with any sharp instrument.