104 BRITISH OAK GALLS. 



about twenty years later. In 1848 Mr. Parfitt 

 noticed many of the galls in the same county, as also 

 did Mr. Stainton a few years later. Its authentic 

 history, however, as British, commenced on November 

 6th, 1854, when Mr. Rich 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. Mr. Eich reported at the meeting, that 

 the gall was very abundant in Somersetshire, and 

 Grloucestershire. ('Proc. Ento. Soc.,' 2nd series, vol. 

 iii, p. 38.) 



At first the gall was ol^served only in the vicinity of 

 Exeter, where, in two large nursery gardens, young 

 oak trees were greatly distorted. For many j^ears it 

 was know^n as the Devonshire gall. From those 

 south-western counties it gradually spread along the 

 north-western part of England and over Wales. In 

 the year 1858 Mr. F. Smi'tli, of the British Museum, 

 obtained from Devonshire a very large numl^er of the 

 galls, and distributed them in different localities around 

 London, for the purpose of observations. By so doing 

 the spreading of the species throughout the remainder 

 of England was accelerated. Now the gall may be 

 found in almost every hedgerow, where there is oak, 

 throughout the whole of Britain, in some districts in 

 great abundance. 



Soon after the galls had become ubicpiitous in the 

 three counties previousl}^ mentioned, many persons 

 were apprehensive that the growth of oak trees, and 

 the timber, would Ije imperilled by the destruction of 

 the acorns, and the distortion of the twigs, if the 

 spreading of the gall remained unchecked. Several 

 writers advocated that the galls should be utilised in 

 the manufacture of ink, and, since they seldom formed 

 on any part of the tree at a greater height than a few 

 feet, children should be employed to gather them, and 

 by that means extermination would be soon accom- 

 plished. Analysis, however, showed that not more 

 than 17 percent, of tannin could be obtained from the 



