144 CYNIPID^ — GALL-FLIES. 



Moufet says : " In oak acorns and spongy apples some- 

 times worms breed, and astrologers presage that year to be 



likely to produce a great famine and dearth It is 



strange that Ringelbergius writes, lib. de experiment, that 

 these worms may be fed to be as big as a serpent, with 

 sheep's milk ; yet Cardanus confirms the same, and shewes the 

 way to feed them. Lib. de rer. varietat.^^^ 



There is a very curious operation performed at the pres- 

 ent day in the Levant with one of these Gall-flies, which is 

 termed caprification. The object of it is to hasten the ma- 

 turity of figs ; and the species employed for that purpose is 

 the Gynips ficui< caricsc, or Cxjnips pjsenes of Linnaeus ; it 

 consists in placing on a fig-tree, which does not produce 

 flowers or early figs, some of these last strung together with 

 a thread. The insects which issue from them, full of fecun- 

 dating dust, introduce themselves through the eye into the 

 interior of the second figs, fecundate by this means all the 

 grains, and provoke the ripening of the fruit. 



This operation, of which some authors have spoken with 

 admiration, appeared to Hasselquist and Olivier, both com- 

 petent observers, who have been on the spot, to be of no 

 advantage whatsoever in fertilizing the fig;- and scientific 

 men of the present day generally hold that it cannot be of 

 any utility, for each fig contains some small flowers toward 

 the eye, capable of fecundating all the female flowers in the 

 interior, and moreover this fruit will grow, ripen, and be- 

 come excellent to eat even when the grains are not fecun- 

 dated.^ 



A curious kind of gall, produced on the rose-trees by the 

 Cynips rosse, which is known by the name of Bedeguar, 

 has been placed among the remedies which may be success- 

 fully employed against diarrhoea and dysentery, and useful 

 in cases of scurvy, stone, and worms.* 



Tlie galls of commerce, commonly called Nut-galls, are 

 found on the Querciis infectoria, a species of oak growing 

 in the Levant, and are produced by the Cynips GaJlse 

 tinctoriim. When gathered before the insects quit them, 

 the nut-galls contain more astringent matter, and are then 

 known as Black, Blue, or Green-galls. When the insects 



1 Theatr. Ins.. 252. Topsel's Hist, of Beasts, p. 108-'). 

 ^ Hasselquist.'s Travels, p. 253. 

 ^ Ciiv. -4??. King. — ///.«., ii 424. 

 * Ibid., p. 427. 



