Pseudo-Galls. 421 



tree.* The shoots of the gooseberry and the willow are 

 sometimes contorted in the same way, but not so strikingly 

 as the shoots of the lime. 



Shoot of the Lime-tree contorted by the punctures of the Aphis tilice, 



PSEUDO-GALLS. 



It may not be ont of place to mention here certain ano- 

 malous excrescences upo$ trees and other plants, which, 

 though they muck resemble galls, are not so distinctly 

 traceable to the operations of any insect. In our researches 

 after galls, we have not unfrequently met with excrescences 

 which so very much resemble them, that before dissection 

 we should not hesitate to consider them as such, and predict 

 that they formed the nidus of some species of insects. In 

 more instances than one we have felt so strongly assured of 

 this, that we have kept several specimens for some months, 

 in nurse-boxes, expecting that in due time the perfect insect 

 would be disclosed. 



One of these pseudo-galls occurs on the common bramble 

 (Rubus fruticosus), and bears some resemblance to the bede- 

 guir of the rose when old and changed by weather. It 

 clusters round the branches in the form of irregular granules, 

 about the size of a pea, very much crowded, the whole 

 * Reaumur, vol. iii. 



