August, and hold to November without ripening; wherein breed small worms, which turn to a sort of gnats, nowhere to be seen but about these trees. In October and November thesc gnats make a puncture into the second fruit, called Cratitires, which do not shew themselves till towards the end of September; and the Fornites gradually fall off after the gnats have left them. The Cratitires remain on the tree till May, and inclose the eggs deposited in in them by the Fornites when they made the aforesaid puncture. In May the third sort of fruit, called Orni, the biggest of them all, begins to appear; which, after it is grown to a certain size, and its bud begins to open, is pricked in that part by the gnats issuing from the Cratitires.

It sometimes happens that the gnats of the Cratitires do not come forth so soon as the Orni of the very same tree are disposed to receive them; in which case the husbandman is obliged to bring some Cratitires from another tree, and fix them at the ends of the branches of that fig-tree whose Orni are in a fit disposition to be pricked by the gnats: If this be neglected, the Orni fall, and the gnats of the Cratitires afterwards fly away. We may naturally suppose it requires a thorough acquaintance with this sort of culture, to know the critical juncture when such assistance is necessary; and in order to this, the bud of the fig must be observed with the greatest attention; for that part not only indicates the time that the prickers are to issue forth, but also when the fig is to be pricked successfully. If the bud be too hard and compact, the gnat cannot lay

its eggs; and the fig drops when the bud is too much expanded.

None of these sorts of fruit are good to eat, and are only serviceable in ripening the fruit of the garden figtree after the following manner. During the months of June and July, the peasants take the Orni, when their gnats are ready to break out, and carry them to the garden fig-tree: If they do not mind the time with the utmost exactness, the Orni drop; and the fruit of the domestic-tree not ripening, for want of its proper puncture, will likewise fall soon after. The husbandman is so sensible of this, that he never lets a morning pass without carefully inspecting his Orni, and transfering such of them as are in forward-ness to his garden fig-trees; otherwise he would lose his crop. Sometimes indeed they supply the want of Orni, or remedy their own neglect, by strewing over their fig-trees a quantity of the Ascholymbros, a plant common enough in some of the islands, whose fruit contains gnats proper for pricking the figs; but perhaps they are the very gnats of the Orni, which are used to hover about this plant and feed upon its flowers. In short, by the care of the peasant and his good management of the Orni, the garden-figs become ripe in about six weeks after they have received the puncture of the insect. These figs are very good when fresh gathered; but after they have dried them in the sun for some time, they put them into ovens, whereby they lose their fine taste, as I have observed already; though on the other hand they have this advantage, that the heat destroys the eggs discharged in them by the gnats of the Orni, from whence small worms would otherwise be

infallibly produced, and the fruit damaged and consumed*.

Now I am treating of the natural history of Scio, it would be unpardonable to omit giving a particular account of its lentisks, which are carefully culti vated, and yield large quantities of a valuable gum called mastich; which indeed is not peculiar to, but is chiefly the product of this island, and esteemed much better than that of any other country. There are twenty villages in Scio where they have plantations of lentisks, each of which villages is obliged annually to pay to the Grand Signior a certain quantity of mastich, according to the number of trees they cultivate; the whole amounting to two hundred and eighty-six chests, each chest weighing fourscore oques, the oque being about two pounds eleven ounces English. Those who happen not to gath er as much mastich as is required of them by the government, are obliged to borrow of their neighbours; and those who have any overplus either sell it privately, or else to the officers of the customs at

* After M. Tournefort has given the like account of caprification, as practised in the islands of the Archipelago, he makes this reflection: "What an expense of time and pain is here for a fig, "and that but an indifferent one at last! I could not sufficiently "admire, says he, the patience of the Greeks, busied above two "months in carrying these prickers from one tree to another.” But their industry, it seems, is amply rewarded; for one of their. trees usually bears between two and three hundred pounds of figs, whereas those of France seldom yield above twenty-five or thirty. "The prickers, continues the same ingenious traveller, contribute perhaps to the maturity of the fruit of the garden fig-tree, by "causing the nutritious juice to extravasate, whose vessels they "tear asunder in depositing their eggs. Perhaps too, besides "their eggs, they leave behind them some sort of liqour, proper

an under rate; for if a person be caught disposing of his mastich to any one else, or carrying it to such towns as do not plant the tree, he is sent to the gallies and his effects confiscated. In a word, all the lentisks are the property of the Grand Signior, the husbandman having but a small part of the gum for

his labour; nor can the trees be sold, but upon condition that the purchaser pay the usual quantity of mastich to the Sultan: The land is commonly sold, and the trees reserved.

The lentisk or mastich-tree spreads wide and in a circular manner, and is ten or twelve feet high, its branches growing crooked and bending towards the ground; the largest trunks are are about a foot in diameter, covered with rugged bark, of a greyish colour; and the leaves are disposed in couples, growing on small ribs hollowed like a gutter. They are about an inch long, half an inch broad in the middle, and narrow at each end; and from the juncture of the leaves grow flowers in bunches like grapes, as the fruit also does, and in each berry there is a white kernel. These trees blow in May, but the fruit is not ripe till autumn or winter.

The beginning of August they make incisions in the bark of these trees, cutting it cross-ways with

"to ferment greatly with the milk of the figs, and make the flesh "of them tender. Our figs in Provence, and even at Paris, rip"en much sooner for having their buds pricked with a straw dip"ped in olive-oil. Plums and pears pricked by some insect do ❝ likewise ripen much faster for it, and the flesh round such punc"ture is better tasted than the rest. It is not to be disputed but "that a considerable change happens to the contexture of fruits so "pricked, just the same as to the parts of animals pierced with "any sharp instrument."

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TRAVELS THROUGH

large knives, but they do not meddle with the young branches. Next day the juice distils in small tears, forming the grains of mastich, which gradually har. den on the ground, and are then swept up and sifted. The height of their harvest is in the middle of August; and they gather abundance if it be dry serene weather, but if it be rainy the tears are all lost. Towards the end of September they make fresh incisions, but these yield much less mastich than the former, and perhaps not altogether of so good a quality. After it is sufficiently dried and hardened, they sift it, as I said before, in order to separate it from the dust and filth that mixes with it on the ground; and the dust that flies from it sticks so fast to the faces of those employed in this business, that they are forced to use oil to wash it off..

Sometimes an Aga is sent on purpose from Constantinople to receive the mastich due to the Grand Signior, or else the custom-house officers of Scio are appointed to receive it; who give notice to the several villages to get ready their respective quotas, and the peasants bring them in accordingly. The Cadi of Scio claims three chests as a perquisite, the clerk. who keeps the account demands another, and the officer who weighs it at the custom-house takes a toll out of every parcel that goes through his hands; so that when the Sultan and all are served, I am a fraid there is little left to reward the labour of the industrious planter. This sort of husbandry however is esteemed so beneficial to the public, that the planters of the lentisks, who are Greek Christians, pay but half the capitation-tax, and are allowed to