THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 243 



therefore none on our mental perceptions or memory. Sucli 

 paragra])l)S form no part of gall-history, or ant-history, or 

 gnal-history : for these we must investigate more methodical 

 and more reliable sources of information. The authentic 

 history of the Devonshire gall, as Britisli, commenced on the 

 6th November, 1854, with Mr. Rich, who was present as a 

 visitor at the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, 

 and exhibited " some sprays of oak thickly covered with 

 large galls. He observed that in Somersetshire, and in 

 part of Gloucestershire, they were so abundant that the oaks 

 were completely covered with them, to the extinction of the 

 acorns,* the loss of which, for ieeding their pigs, the farmers 

 greatly regretted, although he believed that in the value of 

 these galls they had more than an equivalent, seeing that the 

 chemical properties of these galls were nearly equal to those 

 of the Aleppo galls, imported for the manufacture of ink. 

 Mr. Curtis said that Mr. Rich had given him an example of 

 this gall, and that he had also recently received some similar 

 galls, with a specimen of the fly, from his friend Mr. Walcott, 

 of Bristol, who obtained them from an oak growing near the 

 Hotvvells, Clifton. Having paid great attention to the 

 Cynipidae, and bred most of those which are produced from 

 oak-trees, he (Mr. Curtis) had often been doubtful respecting 

 the true Cynips Quercus-pelioli of Linneus ; but he was 

 convinced the specimen he now exhibited — which he had 

 bred, with a few others, from the galls alluded to — is the 

 Linnean species. Cynips Quercus-petioli is described by 

 Linneus in his 'Fauna Suecica,' No. 1523, where he refers to 

 Rcesel, who has given good figures of the galls, fly, &c. 

 (' Insecten Belusligung,' iii. Sup. tab. 35 and 36). The flies 

 are much larger than any other species which had been 

 described as British, and are nearly allied to those produced 

 from the galls of commerce, the Diplolepis Galla)-linctoria3 of 

 Olivier. Mr. Stainton said that for the last four or five years 

 he had noticed these galls in Devonshire, but not in such 

 profusion as now stated. The President had some doubts 

 whether this was the Cynips Quercus-petioli of Linneus, for 



* At p. 155 of tlie fourth volume of the ' Entomologist,' Mr. Biguell states 

 that he finds galls and acorns on the same tree, and oilers to send a piece of 

 oak with both on it. This scarcely militates against the fact that galls are 

 generalli/ produced where acorns do not grow. 



