596 



CUPULIFER^x 



to Cambaj by way of Mekka, and that they are worth a great deal in 

 China and Java. From the statements of Porter Smith^ we learu that 

 they are still prized by the Chinese. 



Formation — Many plants are punctured by insects for the sake of 

 depositing their eggs, which operation gives rise to those excrescences 

 which bear the general name oi gcdl.^ 



Oaks are specially liable to be visited for this purpose by insects of 

 the order Hyvienoptera and the genus Cynips, one species of which, 

 Cynips Galloi tindorice Olivier {Diplolepis Gallce tinctorice Latreille), 



occasions the galls under notice. 



The female of this little creature is furnished with a delicate borer or 

 ovipositor^ which she is able to protrude from the extremity of the 

 abdomen; by means of it she pierces the tender shoot of the oak, and 

 deposits therein one or more eggs. This minute operation occasions aii 

 abnormal affluence to the spot of the juices of the plant, the result of 

 which is the growth of an excrescence often of great magnitude, in the 

 centre of which (but not as it appears until the gall has become full- 

 grown) the larva is hatched and undergoes its transformations. 



When the larva has assumed its final development and become a 

 winged insect, which requires a period of five to six months, the latter 

 bores itself a cylindrical passage from the centre of the gall to its 

 surface, and escapes. 



In the best kind of gall found in commerce, this stage has not yet 

 arrived, the gall having been gathered while the insect is still in the 



larval state. In splitting a number of galls, it is not difficult to find 

 specimens in all stages, from those containing the scarcely distinguishable 

 remains of the minute larva, to those which show the perfect insect to 

 have perished when in the very act of escaping from its prison. 



Description— Aleppo galls-' are iapherical, and have a diameter 

 of tV to J^ of an inch. They have a smooth and rather shining surface, 

 marked in the upper half of the gall by small pointed knobs and ridges, 

 arranged very irregularly and wide apart; the lower half is moi'^' 

 frequently smooth. The aperture by which the insect escapes is always 

 near the middle. When not perforated, tlie galls are of a dark olive 

 green, and comparatively heavy ; but after the fly has bored its w^' out, 

 they become of a yellowish brown hue, and lighter in weight, ^e"^^ 

 the distinction in commerce of Blue or Oree^i Galls, and White Gaiis. ^ 



Aleppo galls are hard and brittle, splitting under the hammer; tiiev 



have an acidulous, very astringent taste followed by a slight sweetnes. < 



but have no marked odour. Their fractured surface is sometimes clos - 



grained, with a waxy or resinous lustre ; sometimes (especially toYf^ * 

 ' asfain it exhibits a 



colour oi 

 the interior varies from pale brown to a deep greenish yello^r. 



the kernel-like centre) loosely granular, or sometimes again it ( 

 crystalline-looking radiated structure or is full of clefts. The 



The 



J^JJfai. Med. and Nat. Hht. of China, 



" French writers, asMoqiiin-TaiuIon, di.s- 

 tinguish the thick-walled galls of Cynipn 

 trom the thin, capsular galls formed by 

 Aplus, terming the former <jalks and the 

 latter coqws (shells). 



3 There are many other varieties of oak 



gaU, for descriptions of some of "f^^'o^i- 

 Guibourt,, m.t. dcs I>'-of;f'J^,^Zs^^- 



and for information on the ,.ugex- 

 insects of the family Cywpmda; aHO 



crescencea they pro^l"««'..T/Srlr ^ '" 

 by Abl in Wi'ttitein's r.r/g«^^- 



fiirprah. Pharm. vi. (18o/) A*^ •" 



rmd'>f 



