THE OAK. 21 



without hands ! " A large volume might be written 

 upon such abodes of creatures. The ingenuities 

 which man has brought to bear on his dwellings 

 have all been anticipated by races of beings to 

 whom art and science are unknown. It is grand 

 to contemplate columns and Gothic arches, porticos, 

 and noble windows, to say nothing of the count- 

 less contrivances intended to promote domestic 

 convenience and comfort ; but nowhere is the 

 splendid instinct of self-protection, which in man 

 flowers forth in its highest form in architecture, 

 more exquisitely displayed than in the methods 

 adopted by insects to secure the same important 

 end. It has, moreover, the special wonder about it, 

 of being exercised on such indifferent, and as it 

 would seem at first sight, such insufficient materials. 

 Marble and granite, metal and timber, are their 

 own assurance of solidity and durableness ; the insect 

 works on substances than which there are none in 

 nature more soft and tender. 



The galls are of precisely similar origin, dating 

 from the operation of a minute insect allied to 

 that which lays the foundation of the oak-apple. 

 When young, they often resemble cherries, and 

 in the East, from this circumstance, have been 

 supposed to be the famous " apples of Sodom," 

 fair to behold, but turning on the lips to dust and 

 ashes. Later and more scientific inquiry has 

 proved this to be an error, but it is an error per- 



