Chap. 11.] CACHETS. 351 



and a production which closely resembles the mulberry, 69 ex- 

 cept that it differs from it in being dry and hard : for the most 

 part it bears a resemblance to a bull's head, and in the inside 

 there is a fruit very similar to the stone of the olive. Little 

 balls 70 also are found growing on the robur, not unlike nuts in 

 appearance, and containing within them a kind of soft wool, 

 which is used for burning in lamps ; for it will keep burning 

 without oil, which is the case also with the black gall-nut. 

 It bears another kind, too, of little ball, covered with hair, 71 but 

 used for no purpose : in spring, however, this contains a juice like 

 honey. In the hollows formed by the union of the trunk and 

 branches of this tree there are found also small round balls, 72 

 which adhere bodily to the bark, and not by means of a stalk : 

 at the point of junction they are white, but the rest of the 

 body is spotted all over with black : inside they are of a scarlet 

 colour, but on opening them they are found to be empty, and 

 are of a bitter taste. 



Sometimes, too, the robur bears a kind of pumice, 73 as well 

 as little balls, which are formed of the leaves rolled up ; upon 

 the veins of the leaves, too, there are watery pustules, of a 

 whitish hue, and transparent while they are soft ; in these a 

 kind of gnat 74 is produced, and they come to maturity just in 

 the same way that the ordinary gall-nut does. 



CHAP. 11. (8.) CACHETS. 



The robur bears cachrys, 75 too ; such being the name given 



of the cynips, deposited upon the leaf or bark of the tree. Tan and gallic 

 acid are its principal component parts. 



_ 69 A substance quite unknown now ; but it is very doubtful if Pliny is 

 rightly informed here. 



70 A fungous gall, produced by the Cynips fungosa. It is not used for 

 any domestic purpose at the present day. 



7 * This kind of gall is now unknown. Fee questions the assertion about 

 its juice. 



72 The Cynips quercus baccarum of Linnaeus, one of the common galls. 



13 The root cynips, the Cynips radicum of Fourcroi, produces these 

 galls, which lie near the root, and have the appearance of ligneous nodo- 

 sities. It is harder than wood, and contains cells, in which the larva of the 

 insect lies coiled up. 



74 This is a proof, as Fee remarks, that the ancients had observed the 

 existence of the cynips ; though, at the same time, it is equally evident 

 that they did not know the important part it acts in the formation of the 

 gall. 



75 This word, as employed by Theophrastus, means a catkin, the Julus 



