Caprification
a process of fertilizing or accelerating the production of fruit, practiced in the Levant, particthe wild fig. It consists in suspending on the cultivated fig branches of the wild fig, which bring with them a small insect which penetrates the female flowers, carrying the pollen of the male flower on its body, or punctures the fruit in order to lay its eggs, which hastens the ripening, and may be the only effect.
The Egyptians pretend to obtain the same result by puncturing the eye of the fruit with a needle that had been dipped in oil.