PHYTOLOGY, 



uj LIBRARY 



SCOTTISH GALLS. 



By J. W. H. TRAIL., A.M., M.D., F.L.S. 



T'HE galls described below, with the exception of that on 

 Juncus lamprocarpus, were sent me during the year i38i 

 by Dr Buchanan White. The gall of Sedum rhodiola was 

 found by him on Ben Blabhein in the island of Skye in SeJDtem- 

 ber; the others were found in Perthshire in May and June. 



Tilia europ^ea, L. — (d) Galls of a Cecidomyia. They agree 

 pretty well with the description of the galls of Cec. floricola, 

 Rudow (Giebel's 'Zeitschrift f. d. Gesammt. Naturwissenschaf- 

 ten,' 1875, p. 40), and probably are the work of that midge. They 

 are swellings on the flower-stalk just where it separates from the 

 bract or where the branches arise, or they may consist of a 

 single swollen deformed flower-bud. Their form is round or 

 oval ; in size they vary from \ to \ inch in length by rather less 

 in breadth. Their texture is fleshy, and they accordingly shrivel 

 in drying. The surface is smooth when fresh ; the deformed 

 flower-buds are naked, but the swellings of the flower-stalks are 

 covered with short woolly white hairs. The galls enclose an 

 irregular cavity. I found these galls some years ago in the 

 gardens at Kew, but am not aware that they have been yet 

 recorded as British. 



Pyrus communis, L. {Pear-tree). — I have already recorded in 

 this magazine the occurrence in Scotland, from various localities, 

 of leaf-blisters, caused by mites, on leaves of Pyrus aucuparia and 

 of P. aria. I have now to add that quite similar galls on leaves 

 of a pear-tree were sent me from Perthshire last summer by Dr 

 White. Very probably the galls on all these plants are the work 

 of the same species of mite (Phytoptus pyri, Pag.). They have 

 often been mentioned as occurring on pear-trees (though I have 

 not met with any previous notice of their occurrence in Scotland), 

 and therefore I shall refer only to Sorauer's ' Handbuch der 

 Pflanzenkrankenheiten,' where (p. 169) they are well described, 

 and both galls and mites are well figured in a coloured plate. 



