io8 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



of the Oake : Which maketh severall luyces find severall 

 Eruptions. And therefore if you will desire to make any 

 Super-Plants, you must euer give the Sap Pentifull Rising 

 and Hard Issue." These oak apples are a purely adventitious 

 growth ; masses of dried and diverted sap. A little insect 

 punctures the stem and then deposits its eggs within the 

 wood. This causes abnormal action to be set up, and within 

 the resulting globular forms the eggs are carefully protected. 

 These are hatched about Midsummer, and, if after this 

 time we cut these little balls open, we shall find some little 

 white grubs snugly ensconced within. These eventually, 

 as winged creatures, force their way out, and fly away to 

 repeat afresh the preliminary stages in oak-apple growing. 

 The "apple" when first formed is often beautifully varied 

 in colour with tints of brown and green and pink and 

 sufliciently suggestive of a real though miniature apple to 

 account for its name. The round oak-galls, so familiar to 

 every one, are formed in a very similar way : they are first 

 green in colour and then brown and when they have arrived 

 at this stage we may ordinarily see in them plainly enough 

 the little circular puncture by which the once imprisoned 

 creature found its way to freedom. They are sometimes, 

 from their spherical form, called marble-galls : they may 

 be seen figured in our illustration. 



Another very common form is that known as the arti- 

 choke gall, where a leaf-bud has been attacked and its due 

 development arrested, so that we get in its place a mass 

 of brown scales. Yet another gall of frequent occurrence 

 is known as the oak-spangle. These are to be found 

 studding the under surfaces of the leaves, at first crimson, 

 then a rich brown in colour, small in size, but generally 



