AND COMPLETE HERBAL. 197 
Hp p55. eh leg 
Description. THE {trong gall-oak, fo named from the fruit it bears, doth 
not grow fo large nor high as other oaks, but fhorter and very: crooked, with fair 
{preading branches ; on thefe grow long leaves, very much cut in on the edges, 
and hoary underneath ; this tree flowereth and beareth acorns, as alfo a round 
woody fubttance, which is called a gall, and the timber is of avery hard fubftance, 
There are feveral kinds:of gall-oaks, fome of them are much fhorter than others,. 
bearing leaves,more or lefs cut or. jagged on the edges, and producing a greater. 
quantity of galls, and no acorns at all ; fome bear large galls, others {mall, forhe- 
knobbed or bunched, and others fmooth ; each are of different colours, fome white, 
| others red, yellow, ‘and green. 
Puace. Thefe oaks grow frequently in Italy, Spain, and other hot countries... 
Time. *They thoot forth their long catkins or bloffoms early in the {pring, which: 
fall away for the moft part before the leaves appear, ‘The acorns are very feldom. 
ripe before October. ; 
GOVERNMENT AND Virtues, I fhall here explain the ufe, virtues, and temper: 
_ament of the galls of thefe foreign trees only, as their acorns differ but little from 
thofe produced by our Englith oaks, yas 
The fmall gall, called omphacitis, is dry in the third degree, and cold in the fe-. 
cond; Saturnine, and of a four harfhinature. Je is effe@ual in drawing together 
and fattening loofe and faint parts, as the overgrowing of the fleth 3; it expelleth 
and drieth up rheums and other fluxes, efpecially thofe that fall upon the gums,, 
almonds of the throat, and other places of the mouth. 
The other whiter gall doth alfo bind and dry, but not fo much as the former,, — 
having a lefs quantity of that four harfhnefs init ; it is good againft the dyfentery or 
bloody flux. The decoétion of them in water is of a mean aftrition, but more 
powerful in harfh red wine ; being fat over, it remedieth the falling of the mother, 
or the galls being boiled and bruifed, and applied to the fundament when fallen, or 
 toany fwelling or inflammation, will prove a certain cure, The coals of burned galls 
being quenched in wine or vinegar, is good to ftanch bleeding in any place. They 
will dye the hair black, and are one of the chief ingredients for making ink; they 
are likewife ufed by dyers for making'black dye. ; a 5 
= Ane oak-apple is much of the nature of galls, though inferior in quality, but 
___ ‘May be fubftituted for them with fuccefs to help rheums, fluxes, and other fuch- 
_ like painful diftempers, | pee 
