I
ON THE
P H E N O M E K A OF FERTILIZATION^
US'
FICUS EOXBUEGHII, WALL.
B. D. CUNNINGHAM, M.B., T.L.S., &c.,
Surgeon-Major, Bengal Army.
Soiirces of materials.
THE trfies from which specimens of receptacles were obtained were seven in number, five
of which, including four males and one feroale, are in the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta;
whUe the remaining two, one male and one female, are in the Zoological Garden, Alipore!
In so far as the specimens in tliis region are concerned, the tree is strictly dicecious, one
set of individuals invariably only producing receptacles containing gall-flowers and maien
the other only producing receptacles containing true female flowers.
General phenomena of fruiting of Ficus RomhiirgML
As far as I have as yet been able to ascertain, two annual crops of receptacles, as a rule,
come to maturity on the male trees. The precise period of maturation difiers in different
trees, but in all eases lies either in the cold weather or in the first half of the hot
weather—that is, between the beginning of November and the middle of May. In two
of the trees in the Botanic Garden maturation occurs in the end of November and the
beginning of December, and again in February and March. In the other two maturation
occurs somewhat later, apparently in December, and again in the end of April and early
part of May. Hardly any new receptacles make their appearance during the hot weather-
April to the middle of June—and these with any immature ones belonging to the cold
weather appear, as a rule, to dry up and abort without having ever reached the stage at
which the fig-insects, whose access is essential to true maturation, enter them. Some time
after the onset of the rains in Juue new receptacles begin to appear again in nujnbere,