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H. here rightly describes the process of fertilization of figs, ἐρινασμός (Theop. H. P. ii. 8. 1; cf. also Arist. H. A. v. 32). The caprificus or wild fig produces inedible figs which are inhabited by the fig-wasp; the female wasps, hatched in these figs, make their way from them, laden with pollen, to the young figs of the ficus or fig proper, in order to lay their eggs in them; they pollinate their flowers, and thus fertilization is effected. H. wrongly thinks the purpose of the process was to prevent the fig falling off. He is wrong, too, in transferring the process to palm-trees; fertilization in these is rightly described by Theop. (u. s. ii. 8. 4) ὅταν ἀνθῇ τὸ ἄρρεν ἀποτέμνουσι τὴν σπάθην ἐφ᾽ ἧς τὸ ἄνθος εὐθὺς ὥσπερ ἔχει, τόν τε νοῦν καὶ τὸ ἄνθος καὶ τὸν κονιορτὸν κατασείουσι κατὰ τοῦ καρποῦ τῆς θηλείας. He too, however, gives the object wrongly, i. e. to prevent the falling off of the fruit. The process is represented on the monuments (cf. B. M. G. 36, and Maspero, i. 555, for picture). H. obscures his meaning by using different words βάλανος and καρπός for the same thing, and wrongly substituting ὄλυνθοι, ‘the untimely figs,’ for ἐρινεοί, i. e. fici caprifici.
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