1859.] REVIEWS. 21 



and report to the Editor the progress of this, which threatens 

 serious consequences to young plantations. In the Isle of 

 Wight, near Ryde, the Cynips Quercus-petioli was very com- 

 mon. Some of the specimens were very large and beautiful. 

 When was it first detected? 



" At the Tarrington meeting Mr. E. Lees exhibited specimens of the 

 hard gall-nuts formed on the oak by the Cynips Quercus-petioli of 

 Linnaeus, which within the last three or four years have spread with such 

 rapidity among the oak woods of this country. Till recently it had been 

 confined almost to Devonshire and Somerset, and in 1855 Mr. Lees 

 stated that having traced it to the banks of the Avon opposite Clifton, 

 he had then inquired, through the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' if it had been 

 yet observed in the midland counties ; but there was no response to 

 that question, nor on inquiiy could he hear that it was then known in 

 Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, or Herefordshire. In 1856 a single 

 specimen was met with by Mr. H. W. Lamb, near Malvern ; and Mr. 

 Lees next found it in Nunnery Wood, near Worcester ; and Mr. Eoberts, 

 in 185 7, at Broadwas. It was then however quite rare, but now (1858) 

 it has been observed in abundance at Cowleigh Park and Broadwas. It 

 has been also gathered in Herefordshire, in a wood near Haffield, and 

 about Eoss. Mr. G. E. Eoberts has recently found it at Bellbroughton, 

 Worcestershire, but even now it is unknown in the northern counties of 

 England. It was remarked that some effort should be made to keep this 

 gaU within limits, as in Somersetshire the farmers had complained that 

 these gall-nuts had supplanted the acorns by their enormous increase in 

 the trees, so that they were now without the usual autumnal food for 

 their pigs ; while in young plantations the leading shoot of the oak being 

 often attacked by the Cynips, was overpowered by the weight of the galls, 

 and destroyed. Every year seems to add to the extent of the ravages of . 

 this insect pest. 



" It was thought that as this gall-nut of the Cynips Quercics-petioli 

 much resembled in appearance the gall-nuts of commerce imported from 

 the Levant, made by Cynips insectivora, that some compensation for mis- 

 chief done might perhaps be taken out in ink made from its gaUs, and 

 the experiment has been tried. But the careful researches made by our 

 Secretary, Mr. Walter Burrow, have proved so unsatisfactory in this 

 respect from the weakness of the gallic acid, that after many trials he has 

 given up the matter." 



Mr. Lees reports a new Alga from a pond at Snead's Green, 

 Mathon, which he proposes to name " Palmella cBstivalis ? 

 Frond glutinous, thin, spreading irregularly on water or mud ; 



