( HO ) 



that the beft fort of gall-nuts which are ufed in this country, are 

 brought from Aleppo. Hereupon I confulted Tavernier's Tra- 

 vels, to fee what he fays on this fubjc(5l ; and I found, that in his 

 third book, when fpeaking of his journey to Aleppo, he fays, ' the 



* hills are covered with oaks bearing the gall-nut, and fome 



• of them, befides gall-nuts, alfo produce acorns.' But, after 

 the preceedijig obfervations, we are not to wonder, that the fame 

 oak will produce both galls and acorns, fince nothing more is 

 wanting for the produ6tion of a gall-nut, than fuch a fly as 1 have 

 mentioned, from the eggs of which, worms fhall proceed, which 

 feed upon the leaves of the oak. 



To fatisfy myfelf more fully in this particular, I examined 

 feveral of thofe gall-nuts which are imported to us, and are much 

 ufed by dyers ; and in fome of them I found a dead fly, of the 

 fame fhape with thofe found in the galls of this country, and in 

 others, only a cavity in the middle, with a round hole reaching 

 from that cavity to the furface of the nut, and in the cavity a kind 

 of dull, which I imagined to have been the excrements of the 

 worm while it was in the nut, And I found upon farther profe- 

 cuting my obfervations on the galls which I gathered from the 

 trees here, that not only the maggot is able to gnaw the fubltance 

 of the nut ; but alfo, that the fly has power to perforate it, to open 

 a paflage for itfelf though I do not think that the fly ufcs the fub- 

 ftance of the nut for food. 



In others of thcfe Aleppo galls, I faw no appearance of any 

 hving creature having been inclofed ; tlie reafon of v.hich I 

 concluded to be, firft, the maggot in our gall-nut, even when of 

 its perfecft fize, is very tender, and cruflied with the leaft touch, 

 and contains nothing in it, but a whitifh fluid fubftance, fo that if 

 a maggot happens to die in the nut, whether from the juices 

 being too acrid, or the nut too hard, in fuch cafe, the ful)ftance 

 of the worm may fo drv awav, as to leave no traces beliind it. 

 In the next place, a maggot, when grown to a confidcrable fize. 



