_Gall flowers._—These are degenerate female flowers which do not produce seeds, the abortive ovary serving only for the habitation and breeding place of a very small wasp, the _Blastophaga_, which is used in caprification. The gall flowers are found only in the original wild fig. _Mule flowers._—These are imperfect female flowers, incapable of producing seeds or of affording a breeding place for the wasp. These flowers are found to the exclusion of all others in most of our cultivated figs. Because of these differences in the flowers the numerous varieties of edible figs may be divided into tribes or subspecies. These are as follows: CLASSIFICATION OF VARIETIES OF EDIBLE FIGS. _Caprifigs_ (_goat figs or wild figs_).—These figs grow wild in southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, and have been recently introduced into California. They bear all the kinds of flowers except the _mule_ flowers, and as they are the only figs bearing _male_ flowers they are essential in all fig districts where mature and fertile seeds are of importance, or in other words, where caprification is necessary. _Smyrna figs._—These are grown only in the Smyrna district of Asia Minor. They have only female flowers, and neither these latter nor the receptacle on which they grow will come to any maturity without caprification or pollination. So-called Smyrna figs, which have been bought of nurserymen, have generally proved spurious, as, unlike the true Smyrna figs, they mature their fruit without pollination. Of late years true Smyrna figs have been planted in California, but they have failed to ripen fruit except when artificially pollinated. These will not produce ripe fruit in commercial quantities until caprification can be practiced, and neither these nor the caprifig should be planted at the present time, except for experimental purposes. _Common edible figs._—These are the common varieties of our orchards, which bear fruit and mature it with regularity without pollination or caprification. They bear two crops a year, the “early figs” or “brebas,” and the later or “summer figs.” Of this tribe alone there are some 400 varieties described more or less perfectly, and probably as many more undescribed and unknown. _San Pedro figs._—This tribe contains only a few dozen varieties, some of which are cultivated in California, and also in Florida and other Southern States. They are characterized by maturing only the first crop or “brebas.” The second crop always drops before reaching maturity. The cause of this is that the first crop contains only “mule flowers,” like those of the common figs, while the second contains only “female flowers,” like those of the Smyrna figs.