caprificus

căprĭ-fīcus, i, f. [caper-ficus, goatfig], the wild fig-tree:

illi ubi etiam caprificus magna est,

Ter. Ad. 4, 2, 38; Hor. Epod. 5, 17; Prop. 4 (5), 5, 76; Plin. 16, 25, 40, § 95:

arbor,

id. 34, 13, 35, § 133; Mart. 10, 2, 9;

and in a play upon the word with caper and ficus,

Mart. 4, 52, 2. The gall-insect, Cynips psenes, Linn., springing from this tree, ripens by its sting the fruit of the cultivated fig-tree, ficus (cf. Plin. 17, 27, 44, § 256, caprifico and caprificatio); hence poet., in allusion to the fact that the wild fig-tree strikes root in the cracks of stones, etc., and breaks them, Pers. 1, 25; cf. Juv. 10, 145.—

II.

The fruit of the wild fig-tree, the wild fig, Col. 11, 2, 56; Plin. 11, 15, 15, § 40:

caprificus vocatur e silvestri genere ficus numquam maturescens,

id. 15, 19, 21, § 79.