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Caprification   Listen
noun
Caprification  n.  The practice of hanging, upon the cultivated fig tree, branches of the wild fig infested with minute hymenopterous insects. Note: It is supposed that the little insects insure fertilization by carrying the pollen from the male flowers near the opening of the fig down to the female flowers, and also accelerate ripening the fruit by puncturing it. The practice has existed since ancient times, but its benefit has been disputed.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Caprification" Quotes from Famous Books



... who know nothing about figs except to eat them have no right to a say in the matter. Tradition and experience are in favor of the Kabyle. He does what has been done since Aristotle, Theophrastus and Pliny, all of whom insist on "caprification" as essential to a large crop of figs adapted to drying. He will go or send many miles to procure the wild fruit if it does not grow in his neighborhood, and the traffic in it reaches a value of some thousands of dollars annually, trains of thirty, fifty and sixty ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various



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