CHAP. CV. 



c'oryla'ce.i:. 4JUe'ucus. 



1 9'2L> 



species was introduced into England in 1822 ; but we have never seen it, and we are nut aware that 

 there is a living plant of it in the neighbourhood of London. 



A^\ 



The gall fly of Q, bifectoria 

 belongs to the family Cyni- 

 pidae Westw. (Diploleparias 

 Latrcille.) Amongst the 

 excrescences, or galls, pro- 

 duced by the punctures of 

 the different species of this 

 family of insects, the galls, or 

 nut galls, of commerce (in 

 French, gallcs and noLv de 

 galle ; in German, gaU-ajifcl; 

 in Italian, gfl/Zf and galluzzc ; 

 in Latin, gal/a; in Arabian, 

 afls; in Hindostanee, mai/u- 

 phal ; and in Persian, mayer) 

 are by far the most valuable, being much employed in the manufacture of ink, 

 as well as occasionally for medicinal purposes. These galls, which, when full 

 grown {Jig. 1821.), are of the size of a boy's marble, of 

 a rounded form, and rather uneven surface, are at- 

 tached to the slender stems of the branches of Q.. in- 

 fectoria, and are produced by the DipbSlepis, or, more 

 properly, Cynips Gallas tinctorise Oliv. Enc. Mcth., 

 vi. p. 281.; Cynips scriptorum Kirby and Spe7ice Inlr., 

 i. p. 319. This insect (flg. 1822. d) is of a pale 

 brown colour, and may often be found enclosed in the 

 galls sold in the shops of the druggists, &c.; these 

 galls having been collected before the insect had made 

 its escape. Fig. 1822. a is a section of one of these 

 galls. The natural history of this family of insects 

 may be stated in a very few words, although the phy- 

 siological nature of the changes which take place in 

 the action of the juices of the plants attacked by them, whereby galls of a 

 very great diversity of form are produced, has not been ascertained. The 

 female Cynipidae are furnished with an instrument, or ovipositor, of a curved 

 form, and, for the most part, concealed within the abdomen, the extremity only 



