GALL A 141 



103. ALNUS SERRULATA Willdenow. TAG ALDER. Habitat: North America. 

 (Bark.) Tonic, astringent, and alterative. Dose: 30 to 60 gr. (2 to 4 Gm.). 



104. FAGUS FERRUGINEA Alton. AMERICAN BEECH. (Bark and leaves.) 

 Astringent and slightly tonic. 



105. GALLA. NUTGALL 

 GALLS 



An excrescence on the young twigs Quer'cus infectoria and other species of Quercus 

 produced by the punctures and deposited ova of Cynips gallcz tinctoria (Fig. 

 59) Olivier (class, Insecta; order, Hymenoptera). Not more than 5 per cent, 

 of Galls float in water. 



BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS. A shrub or small tree 6 to 8 feet high. Leaves 

 short-petiolate, obovate-oblong, obtusely toothed, oblique at bass. A corn 

 solitary, obtuse, two or three limes the length of the cup. 



HABITAT. Levant. 



DESCRIPTION or DRUG. Hard, heavy, subglobular, from the size of a 

 pea to that of a large cherry, contracted below into a short stipe 

 and covered above with a few or many prominent warts (tuber- 

 culated) between which the surface is smooth. Heavy, sinking in 

 water, except the smaller ones which should not be present to a 

 greater extent than 5 per cent. Externally dark bluish or lead color, 

 frequently with a greenish. tinge, often with a circular hole near the 

 middle upper part, communicating with the central cavity. They 

 break with a flinty fracture, showing a whitish or brownish interior, 

 with often a central cavity, lined with a thin, hard shell, which con- 

 tains the insect in all stages of development, or the pulverulent 

 remains of the developed insect mixed with partly eaten fragments 

 of the starchy parenchyma. Odorless; very astringent. 



STRUCTURE. The tissue is chiefly parenchyma, loaded with tannin and 

 chlorophyll; the cavity lining is composed of stone cells containing 

 calcium oxalate crystals; within this cavity, if not eaten out, is a 

 starchy parenchyma. 



VARIETIES. Most of the oaks are occasionally affected as the above 

 species, the resulting excrescence, known as galls, developing a tannin 

 which may be employed for various practical purposes. The Aleppo 

 or Syrian, dark colored and heavy (although the designation Aleppo 

 is not wholly applicable to the official galls "Galla"), are the 

 products of different parts of Asiatic Turkey; still the name is applied 

 to this variety. Smyrna galls, grayish-olive color, intermixed with 

 white galls. Sorian, size of a pea, blackish. Japanese and Chinese, 

 from Rhus simulata, % to 2 inches long, ovate, very irregular, tuber- 

 cular, grayish downy, inclosing the remnants of numerous insects. 

 The Chinese make use of this product in dyeing and as a medicine. 



Powder. Gray. The microscopic elements consist of: See Part iv, Chap. I, B. 



