# Enquiry into Plants/Volume 1/Chapter 28

Of remedies for the shedding of the fruit: caprification.
VIII. Trees which are apt to shed their fruit before ripening it are almond apple pomegranate pear and, above all, fig and date-palm; and men try to find the suitable remedies for this. This is the reason for the process called 'caprification'; gall-insects come out of the wild figs which are hanging there, eat the tops of the cultivated figs and so make them swell. The shedding of the fruit differs according to the soil: in Italy they say that it does not occur, and so they do not use caprification, ​nor is it practised in places which face north nor in those with light soils, as at Phalykos in the Megarid, nor in certain parts of the district of Corinth. Also conditions as to wind make a difference the fruit is shed more with northerly than with southerly winds, and this also happens more if the winds are cold and frequent. Moreover the character of the tree itself makes a difference; for some kinds, such as the Laconian and other such kinds, shed their early figs but not the later ones. Wherefore caprification is not practised with these. Such are the changes to which the fig is subject in respect of locality kind and climatic conditions.
Now the gall-insects come, as has been said, out fig, and they are engendered from the seeds. The proof given of this is that, when they come out, there are no seeds left in the fruit; and most of them in coming out leave a leg or a wing behind. There is another kind of gall-insect which is called kentrines; these insects are sluggish, like drones, they kill those of the other kind who are entering the figs, and they themselves die in the fruit. The black kind of wild fig which grows in rocky places is most commended for caprification, as these figs contain numerous seeds. A fig which has been subject to caprification is known by being red and parti-coloured and stout, while one which has not been so treated is pale and sickly. The treatment is applied to the trees which need it, after rain. The wild figs are most plentiful and most potent ​where there is most dust. And they say that hulwort also, when it fruits freely, and the 'gall-bags' of the elm are used for caprification. For certain little creatures are engendered in these also. When the knips is found in figs, it eats the gall-insects. It is to prevent this, it is said, that they nail up the crabs; for the knips then turns its attention to these. Such are the ways of assisting the fig-trees.
With dates it is helpful to bring the male to the female; for it is the male which causes the fruit to persist and ripen, and this process some call, by analogy, 'the use of the wild fruit.' The process is thus performed: when the male palm is in flower, they at once cut off the spathe on which the flower is, just as it is, and shake the bloom with the flower and the dust over the fruit of the female, and, if this is done to it, it retains the fruit and does not shed it. In the case both of the fig and of the date it appears that the 'male' renders aid to the 'female,'—for the fruit-bearing tree is called 'female'—but while in the latter case there is a union of the two sexes, in the former the result is brought about somewhat differently.
* ↑ πέψαι conj. Sch.; πέμψαι Ald.
* ↑ ἐκεῖ κρεμαννυμένων ἐρινῶν I conj.; ἐκεῖ κρεμαννυμένων Ald.; ἐπικρεμαμένων ἐρινῶν conj. W.: but the present partic. is use C.P. 2. 9. 5.
* ↑ πιαίνουσι MVALd.; διείρουσι conj. W. ? πεπαίνουσι, 'ripen,' which is the word used in the parallel pass. C.P. 2. 9. 6, the object of the process being to cause the figs to dry.
* ↑ Plin. 15. 81. 'Italy' means South Italy. cf. 4. 5. 5 and 6; 5. 8. 1.
* ↑ ἐρινάζουσιν conj. Bod.; ἐρινοῦσιν Ald.H.
* ↑ cf. 8. 2. 11.
* ↑ ψυχρότερα καὶ πλείω conj. Sch.; τεχνοτέρα καὶ πλείων MV Ald.; τεχρότερα καὶ πλείω U.
* ↑ πρΐα conj. Sch. from G; πρῶτα Ald. H.
* ↑ Plin. 17. 255 and 256.
* ↑ i.e and so should produce more gall-insects: in C.P. 2. 9. 6 it is implied that the insect is produced by putrefaction of the seeds of the wild fig.
* ↑ ὁπότ᾽ ἂν … πολύς conj. W. from G, cum copiose fructificat; ὁπόταν αἰγίπυρος ᾖ πολύς MSS. U adds καὶ before ὁπόταν.
* ↑ κωρύκους I conj. In 3. 14. 1. the elm is said to bear κωρυκίδες which contain gnat-like creatures; those growths are called κωρυκώδη τινα κοῖλα 3. 15. 4; and in 3. 7. 3. the same thing is referred to as τὸ θυλακῶδες τοῦτο where τοῦτο = 'the well-known'; cf. also 9. 1. 2, where Sch. restores κωρύκους; cf. Pall. 4. 10. 28. κυπαίρους (?) U; κυπέρους MV; κύπεριν Ald,; κυττάρους conj. W.
* ↑ ὀλυνθάζειν, from ὄλυνθος, a kind of wild fig, as ἐρινάζειν from ἐρινός, the wild fig used for caprification. cf. C.P. 3. 18. 1.
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