22 THE OAK. 



fectly natural to have been fallen into, since the 

 appearance is tempting, and the galls produced in 

 Palestine and the adjacent countries are often large 

 and brightly-coloured. It is from Smyrna that most 

 of the galls used in the manufacture of ink are im- 

 ported. Our English ones would answer the same 

 purpose, but not so well, nor are they produced in 

 England in sufficient quantity to make it worth 

 while to collect them. It would be matter of regret 

 if they were so produced, because the tree must 

 needs suffer from the loss of so much sap as is 

 needed to form them ; and in England, though we 

 have plenty of oaks, we require them for other 

 purposes. One kind of oak-gall is produced in 

 clusters that resemble a thin bunch of red currants ; 

 another is like a little brown artichoke, being 

 formed from a leaf-bud which has had its legitimate 

 growth spoiled by the operation of the insect, and 

 opens it tiny leaves prematurely, and as simple 

 brown scales. Least of all, but quite as pretty 

 as the oak-apple itself, are the " oak-spangles '' 

 strewed on the under-surface of the leaves, and 

 which bear, as just now said, no distant likeness 

 to the circular mounds of fructification of such 

 ferns as the common golden-dotted polypody of the 

 hedgebanks. So strange is the similitude, that a 

 solitary oak-leaf, jewelled by these beautiful little 

 growths, and shown to an inexperienced observer, 

 might and would be taken for a fern-frond ! But 



