84 VEGETABLE DRUGS WITH ORGANIC STRUCTURE. 



The following varieties are common: (i) Aleppo; 

 (2) Chinese galls. 



Aleppo Gall. — A small, circular, greenish gall, having 

 a diameter of about 3 cm. It comes into the market 

 under a variety of names according to the provinces 

 from which it is derived — Smyrna, Tripoli, etc. 



They are somewhat shiny in their outer appearance, 

 short-stalked, and on the upper side often rendered 

 irregular by sharp-pointed warts or excrescences. The 

 under side is smooth. 



The younger sorts are darker, greenish ; the older sorts 

 are apt to be brown, reddish yellow, and hence, dark and 

 light, or black and white galls. The former sink in water, 

 the latter generally float. The point of departure of the 

 insect is generally on the under side of the gall. If the 

 larva has not developed, the gall, when cracked, is found 

 to be full of loose parenchymatic tissue, while if the larva 

 has escaped, the gall is empty in the centre save for the 

 webby remains of the insect's eating — sawdust. 



Some degree of variation is to be noted in different 

 examples of the same type of galls under the low power, 

 but in the main the following regions can be made out: 

 The centre (5 to 7 mm.) is hollow, or if the larva has only 

 partly matured the centre is filled w^th loose, small- 

 celled, starch-filled cells (40 /i), starch in thick masses, 

 and round tannin masses. On the outer border of what 

 may be called the insect chamber is a thin sheath that 

 separates this starch-bearing parenchyma from the 

 outer gall. This sheath, perhaps one-half the diameter 

 of the gall, is composed of yellowish stone cells, whose 

 walls are thickened. The tissue of the outer gall is 

 mainly parenchymatic, loosely thickened by spiral cell 

 structures, richly pored in the inside layer. Primary 

 vessel bundles may run through the long diameter from 

 the centre. These are mainly composed of spiral vessels, 



