372 SHORT NOTES. 



for rearing silkworms, of which I gave a copy some time since,^' re 

 presents apparently the same gall, to which the Chinese text indeed 

 alludes, and I should think the species might well be Q. Fahri. 

 These productions appear to be identical with the " artichoke galls "f 

 of Europe. A vertical section shows them to consist of a solid, woody, 

 ovoid core, surrounded on all sides and surmounted by the densely 

 iinbricated flattened scales ; and at the top of and sunk within the 

 surface of this core is the nidus of the Cynips which produces the 

 excrescence. A detailed description of the European gall will be 

 found in M. Lacaze-Duthier's elaborate " Recherches pour servir a 

 I'historie des galles " j ; and, except that it is narrower and far more 

 elongated, the vertical section figured by him of the '' galle en 

 artichaut du chene"§has considerable resemblance to that of the 

 Chinese galls. But his explanation — "■ Pour nous, ces tumeurs sont 

 le resultat d'une piqure sur le bourgeon, dont les ecailles et la base, 

 considerablement hypertrophiees, produisent 1" artichaut," seems 

 scarcely compatible with the fact that in two specimens before me 

 these galls spring, not from the branch itself, but from the under 

 surface of the midrib of the leaf, in one case three arising from the 

 same point. The curious circumstance is, that the puncture of an 

 insect should have the effect of producing, in several distinct species 

 of Querciis, tumours which in external appearance so closely mimic the 

 cupules of other Oaks, belonging to a different groap^ as, on superficial 

 examination only, to deceive botanists accustomed to the study of the 

 genus ! 



SHOET NOTES. 



Erica VAGANS.— The " Pall Mall Gazette " for October 18th has the 

 following interesting note : — The author of an article which was pub- 

 lished some days ago under the title of " West Cornish Moors and 

 Miners," writes to us: — " I mentioned in my article that the so- 

 called ' Cornish heath ' only grows on the serpentine. A friend tells 

 me, in confirmation of this, that he discovered a patch of serpentine on 

 Connor Downs, between Hayle and Redruth, from finding Erica 

 vagans by the side of a newly-made road along which he was riding. 

 The lieath was growing in soil so decomposed as to be unrecognisable ; 

 but a little search showed that the hedge was built of serpentine, of 

 which a small quarry had been opened lower down. My friend 

 mentioned his discovery to the late Mr. Carne, the founder of the 

 Penzance Geological Museum. ' Why, it can't be,' he remarked. 



• We've been over all that country and found nothing of the sort there. 



* Nor should I, but that botany helped me,' was the reply. This was 

 in 1836. The only other known patch of serpentine is Colrennic 

 Cairn at Mehenist, just east of Liskeard, where the railway is cut 

 through serpentine rock. Here the * Cornish heath ' grows pro- 

 fusely. Most people think there is no serpentine except at the 

 Lizard." 



1 inn. Soc. Proc, xiii., 11. + Loudon, Arb. et. Frut. Brit., iii., 1825. 

 Ann. Sc. Nat., 3« ^e^., xix., 349. § Op. cit., t. 19, fig. 12. 



