But as yet it is not
known into what winged condition it is transformed.
The fruit of the wild fig contains the psen, or fig-wasp. This
creature is a grub at first; but in due time the husk peels off and
the psen leaves the husk behind it and flies away, and enters into the
fruit of the fig-tree through its orifice, and causes the fruit not to
drop off; and with a view to this phenomenon, country folk are in
the habit of tying wild figs on to fig-trees, and of planting wild
fig-trees near domesticated ones.
33
In the case of animals that are quadrupeds and red-blooded and
oviparous, generation takes place in the spring, but copulation does
not take place in an uniform season. In some cases it takes place in
the spring, in others in summer time, and in others in the autumn,
according as the subsequent season may be favourable for the young.
The tortoise lays eggs with a hard shell and of two colours
within, like birds' eggs, and after laying them buries them in the
ground and treads the ground hard over them; it then broods over the
eggs on the surface of the ground, and hatches the eggs the next year.
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