CYNIPS. 
271 
every year, very seldom spiders : and Helmont 
aflirmeth he could never find the spider and the 
fly upon the same trees, that is the signs of war 
and pestilence, which often go together: beside 
that the flies found were at first maggots, experi- 
ence hath informed us; for keeping these ex- 
crescencies, we have observed their conversions ; 
beholding in magnifying-glasses the daily pro- 
gression thereof ; as may be also observed in other 
vegetable excretions, whose maggots do terminate 
in flies of constant shapes; as in the nutgalls of 
the outlandish oak, and the mossie tuft of the 
wild-briar; which having gathered in November, 
we have found the little maggots which lodged in 
wooden cells all winter, to turn into flies in June. 
We confess the opinion may hold some verity in 
analogy, or emblematical phancy; for pestilence 
is properly signified by the spider, whereof some 
kinds are of a very venomous nature: famine by 
maggots, which destroy the fruits of the earth; 
and war not improperly by the fly, if we rest in 
the phancy of Homer, who compares the valiant 
Grecian unto a fly. Some verity it may also have 
in itself ; as truly declaring the corruptive con- 
stitution in the present sap and nutrimental juice 
of the tree; and may consequently discover the 
disposition of the year according to the plenty or 
kinds of those productions; for if the putrefving 
Juices of bodies bring forth plenty of flies and 
maggots, they give forth testimony of common 
corruption, and declare that the elements are full 
