1864.] , 639 



sequently. whatever the structural character be which limits them to 

 one Willow or one Oak, it must be specific and not generic. Now is 

 it conceivable, so closely as most of these Gall-gnats and many of these 

 G-all-flies are allied, and so closely as most Willows and most Oaks are 

 allied, that there can be fundamental and immutable specific differences 

 in the organization of almost all these N. A. Grall-gnats and Gall-flies, 

 which have compelled them for all time, ever since their first so-called 

 original creation, to inhabit one particular species of Oak or of Willow, 

 and to perish if they are transferred to any other species '! Yet, if we 

 believe in the Creative Theory, we are bound to believe this. We are 

 bound to believe, for example, that two distinct species of the Gall-flies of 

 the Oak — Qijuips q. spongijica O. S. and C. q. inanis 0. S. — which, if 

 they differ at all in their organization, difter by such exceedingly mi- 

 nute differences, that, on the closest scrutiny under the most powerful 



same year or not till the following year. It is a suggestive, and certainly not 

 a merely fortuitous fact, that those Gall-8ies which inhabit promiscuously seve- 

 ral species of Oak, confine themselves to one or the other Section or Subgenus : 

 e. g. Cijnips q. globulus Fitch, occurs on Q. alba and Q. montana, and also, unless 

 I have been deceived by the similarity of the gall, on Q. macrocarpa, all three 

 of them belonging to the first section or subgenus ; and C. q. petiolicola Bassetfc 

 occurs on Q. prinus (=Q. montana) and Q. prinoides. all three of them likewise 

 belonging to the first section or subgenus. The rest all occur exclusively on 

 Oaks belonging to the second section or subgenus, viz., C. q. palustris O.S. on Q. 

 palustris. Q. tinctoria (^Q. coccinea), Q. imbricaria, Q. falcata and Q. ilicifolia ; 

 C. q. operator 0. S. on Q. nigra, Q. palustris and Q. ilicifolia : and C. q. O.sten Sackenii 

 Bassett on Q. ilicifolia and Q. coccinea. C. q. sculpta Bassett, which Mr. Bassett 

 found on Q. rubra, I have since bred from j^recisely similar galls on Q. tinctoria: 

 and I found last August and early in September, in very great numbers both on 

 Q. rubra and Q. tinctoria, growing/row the side of the cup of the acorn, a globular, 

 smooth, plum-like, fleshy, intensely bitter gall, al^out .50 — .75 inch in diameter, 

 mottled with yellowish and crimson outside, and internally yellowish in the 

 centre and towards the circumference pink like a water-melon. This gall, of 

 which I forwarded a specimen to Baron Osten Sacken, is thought by him to be 

 identical with his Q.juylans, which was described only from dry, shrivelled-uf) 

 specimens, and which was stated by Mr. Hitz who found it "to grow on the 

 6rancAe.s of the White Oak," (Q alba.) a species that belongs to the first section of 

 Quercus. Either Mr. Hitz must have been mistaken, both as to the tree and 

 the part of the tree on which he found Q.juglans 0. S., or else my gall is a dis- 

 tinct species. If so, I propose for it the name of Q.prunus. It is the only N. A. 

 Cynipidous gall known so far to grow on the acorn, though, judging from the 

 names, the European Cynipidous galls, q. calicis and q. baccarum, grow the one 

 on the cup of the acorn, like q.prunus, and the other on the acorn itself. 



