318 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



nexions be their distance from us ever so great, and sup- 

 plies the means by which, to use the poet's language we 

 can 



" give to airy nothing 

 A local habitation and a name ! " 



enabling the poet, the philosopher, the politician, the 

 moralist, and the divine, to embody their thoughts for 

 the amusement, instruction, direction and reformation of 

 mankind. The insect which produces the gall-nut is of 

 the genus Cynips of Linne, but was not known to him 

 or to Fabricius. Olivier first described it under the 

 name of Diplolepis gallce linctorite*. The galls originate 

 on the leaves of a species of oak (Qiiercus infect&ria,) 

 very common throughout Asia Minor, in many parts of 

 which they are collected by the poorer inhabitants and 

 exported from Smyrna, Aleppo, and other ports in the 

 Levant, as well as from the East Indies, whither a part 

 of those collected are now carried. The galls most es- 

 teemed are those known in commerce under the name of 

 blue galls, being the produce of the first gathering before 

 the fly has issued from the gall. It will not be uninter- 

 esting to you to know, that from these when bruised 

 may occasionally be obtained perfect specimens of the 

 insect, one of which I lately procured in this way. The 

 galls which have escaped the first searches, and from 

 most of which the fly has emerged, are called white galls, 

 and are of a very inferior quality, containing less of the 

 astringent principle than the blue galls in the proportion 

 of two to three 5 . The white and blue galls are usually 



a Encyclop. Insect, vi. 281. It had better, perhaps, as compound 

 Trivial Names are bad, be called Cynips Scriptorum. 

 b Olivier's Travels in Egypt, &c. ii. 64. 



