GALLS 95 



Winter, but certain others prefer to wait over a year or 

 two in their cells. 



It would be superfluous to make any further remarks 

 on this subject, as some parts are not entirely new to 

 you, such as my experiments made at Artiminio when 

 the Court stayed there last year to enjoy the delightful 

 sports of the chase. So I will keep silence in good faith, 

 begging the continuation of your interest in another 

 work which I am preparing to publish, i. e., a history of 

 divers fruits and animals generated by oaks and other 

 trees. I firmly believe that I shall soon be able to satisfy 

 the curiosity of investigators of natural phenomena, be- 

 ing favored by the royal generosity of my Lord, the 

 Serene Grand Duke, by which means I have already been 

 able to obtain many illustrations for my work from the 

 skillful brush of Signor F. Pizzichi. 



Before returning to my argument, I cannot refrain 

 from saying that I do not consider it a great sin against 

 philosophy to maintain that the worms of plants are 

 created by the same natural principle that prcxiuces the 

 fruits of the plants; and although in some schools it is 

 held as an axiom that the lower cannot produce the 

 higher, I think this absurd, for it seems to me that the 

 fact alone of flies and gnats being bred in galls is suffi- 

 cient to remove all doubt. Besides, " low " and " high " 

 are unknown terms to Nature, invented to suit the be- 

 liefs of this or that sect, according to the needs of the 

 case. But even if it were true, as the scholastics noisily 

 assert, that the lower cannot produce the higher, I do not, 

 for my part, see what there is degrading or paradoxical 

 in the assertion that plants, in addition to their vegeta- 

 tive existence, possess a sensitive power to which this 



