xvi. APPLES OF SODOM. 287 



the bough, but in spring the imprisoned germs of life 

 within it are emancipated and take part in the active 

 vitality of the world. 



How are we to account for this beauty of form and 

 perfection of structure in these morbid products, which 

 almost rival the natural products developed in full 

 accordance with the type of the plant? The oak- 

 apple is in its own way as admirably constructed as 

 the acorn, although it is nothing more than a mass of 

 extravasated sap dried and consolidated by exposure 

 to the atmosphere. What normal structure of the tree 

 is more beautifully formed than the golden oak-spangle 

 with which the under surface of every leaf is so 

 richly jewelled? What cherry can be more tempting- 

 looking than the apparently similar fruit which covers 

 the young leaves of the oak -coppice in such lux- 

 uriant abundance? Is the natural moss that adorns 

 the most beautiful of all the tribe the moss-rose more 

 wonderful than the red bedeguar moss of the wild-rose, 

 which is simply the nest of a colony of minute larvae ? 

 The insects do not form these remarkable galls as the 

 bee moulds its cell, or the wasp its nest, or the cater- 

 pillar its cocoon, or the bird its nest. They do not 

 carry on the whole operation, as in these cases, from 

 the beginning to the end : they simply puncture the leaf, 

 or bud, or stem, deposit in the wound their eggs, and 

 leave the plant to do the rest ; so that there is no exer- 

 cise of animal instinct in the formation of these curious 

 galls beyond the initial impulse. How then are the 

 galls so regular, so beautiful in structure and appear- 



