" F. B.," Stockton, California, writes: "So much is said about the necessity of cross-fertilization in flowers, I wonder how the fig manages, that has no open flowers at all. Surely insects can bring no pollen here".

But those who argue for the necessity of cross-fertilization do not hold that flowers never fertilize without foreign pollen. They only hold that in some way they have not however explained, cross-fertilization "must be" a benefit. And then they hold that some flowers would never be fertilized at all, but for this extraneous aid, which is true also. It is very difficult for many flowers to receive their own pollen, and it is on this account that some value has been assumed for cross-fertilization. If, as our correspondent has the idea, it really were a belief that plants must have foreign pollen to bear fruit at all, or to be in anyway dependent on insect or other agencies for pollenization, the fig would certainly be a good illustration of the fallacy; for the male flowers near the apex of the fruit discharge abundance of pollen which, falling on the female flowers at the base, furnish all the pollen they require, and indeed every Californian knows that he has abundance of fruit without insect agency. Centures ago it was thought that a small fly had an influence on getting a full crop, and they used to bring the flowers of the wild fig in which the insects were numerous to the flowers of the cultivated fig, and called the process caprification.

They found trees that would bear perhaps only twenty-five pounds, would yield perhaps 300 pounds by this care. But this practice had no reference to pollenization.

They thought the figs did not set because the vigor of the tree was unfavorable to fruitfulness, and they thought the puncture of the fly aided fruitfulness by giving vegetative vigor a check; and they were probably right. Gardeners to this day are well aware of this principle. Not only will the puncture of an insect hasten the maturity of a fruit; but we have to ring, transplant, prune, freeze, or otherwise maltreat an over vigorous plant, to get it to bear at all.