9 6 



Trees, Stars, and Birds 



Journal of Heredity 



FIG. 57. Giant white oak near Amelia, 

 Virginia. It has a height of 118 feet 

 and a spread of 128 feet. 



Journal of Heredity 



FIG. 58. Trunk of the same tree. The 

 circumference is more than 15 feet at a 

 height of 6 feet from the ground. 



is the larva stage, the stage which follows the egg of 

 an insect and during which it eats a great deal and grows 

 fast. The little gallfly lays an egg beneath the skin 

 of the leaf or twig, and when this egg hatches, the larva 

 feeds on the juices contained in the leaf or twig. The 

 abnormal growth (the gall) which the plant makes 

 around the larva serves to protect the young insect 

 from other insects and from birds. 



Some galls are quite pretty. A collection of a dozen 

 or more kinds would form an interesting exhibit in a 

 schoolroom. Black ink is made from copperas and 

 certain oak galls called " nutgalls," combined with a 

 little dextrin or gum arabic, which is added to make it 

 adhere to the pen. In Hungary and the Balkan States 



