15 
The several species of wild rose, whose beautiful blossoms 
adorn the highways and hedges, are subject to the attack of three 
or four gall-producing wasps. 
The most familiar, perhaps, is that called 
The Bedeguar Gall, 
which is produced by the energies of a very tiny and most 
brilliantly coloured gall-wasp, named Lhodites Rose. ‘VYhe word 
Bedeguar is from the French, the exact meaning of which I have 
yet to learn. ‘This gall is more or less familiar to all who observe 
nature while walking in the country during the summer months. 
Occasionally, on a hedgerow, may be seen a long runner of a wild 
rose bush towering high above all the surrounding foliage, and 
upon it is the gall. - ‘This is not the only situation in which they 
are found, but it is a typical one. 
When viewed from a short distance it has some resemblance 
to a reddish brown tuft of moss, of a globular shape. Variation 
in size is considerable, but they seldom exceed six inches in 
circumference. Upon close inspection, we find it composed of a 
“mass of fibrous bristles, which are branched from their base to 
their point. One fibre of about an inch and a half long will 
throw off as many as 30 or 40 of these branchlets. 
In common with many other varieties, it is the abode of 
numerous larvee, and is a perfect illustration of the polythalamous 
division ; as many as fifty larve may be found in one cluster. 
Mach larva inhabits a separate cell. The cells, or woody 
tubercles, as they are technically termed, are of various sizes, 
small ones being about the size of a little lead shot, others ten 
times larger. All the tubercles are fused together more or less 
strongly ; some will fall apart with a mere touch, while others 
require the use of a knife to separate them. The walls of the 
cells are thicker in the small ones than in the larger ones, some 
of which may be crushed with pressure by the finger and thumb, 
whereas the smaller ones can only be opened with difficulty. 
Mingled with the other foliage of a hedgerow there may 
often be seen the leaves of the common maple. ‘Lhe attention is 
frequently arrested by the bright red appearance of the upper 
side of the leaves, rendered more conspicuous because of the 
sombre colour of the underside, as well as the greener colour of 
surrounding leaves. After a shower of rain, when the sun shines 
on them, they are very brilliant and attractive; some of the 
leaves are entirely coloured, others only partly. 
A careful examination of a leaf will show that the redness of 
the upper surface is due toa number of small swellings, which 
take the form of pimples, in size about that of the head of a small 
pin. 
