GALLS AND PARASITES. 277 



bees have their parasites ; beetles often carry about 

 with them a parasitic mite ; nearly every bird has one 

 or more kind of parasite ; quadrupeds have their 

 fleas, and some bipeds, too, unfortunately ; whilst even 

 fish and reptiles are not without them. As most inti- 

 mately connected with our subject, galls deserve more 

 than the rest a special enumeration. 



OAK-APPLES. These galls are known to every 

 schoolboy old enough to put one in his cap on the 29th 

 of May. They are softer and more spongy in texture 

 than the majority of oak-galls, and are produced 

 plentifully in the spring. A writer in an old book, 

 dated 1660, says, "If you take an oak-apple from an 

 oak-tree, and upon the same you shall find a little 

 worm therein, which if it doth flye away it signifies 

 wars ; if it creeps, it betokens scarceness of corn ; if 

 it runs about, then it foreshows the plague. This is 

 the countryman's astrology, which they have long 

 observed for truth." 



Another method which we would recommend to 

 be adopted in preference is to collect some of these 

 galls when they appear to be fully matured, and con- 

 fine them in a box, or, still better, in a wide-mouthed 

 glass jar, and watch for the insects when they make 

 their escape. Under these conditions they may 

 betoken an addition to the observer's stock of know- 

 ledge, provided he is so minded. 



There are, of course, general features in which all 

 these gall-flies, called Cynips^ agree with each other, 

 but there will be no better method of cultivating the 







1 Cynips terminalis. 



