THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
No. 125.] JANUARY, MDCCCLXXIYV. [Price 6d. 
Descriptions of Oak-galls. Translated from Dr. G. L. Mayr’s 
‘Die Mitteleuropdischen Hichengallen.’ By Miss ANNA 
WEISE. 
(Mr. Walker has most kindly consented to add, under each 
description, such remarks on the parasites of the gall-maker, 
or the inquilines of the gall, as may have come under his own 
notice; these will be accompanied by any observations that 
may tend to illustrate the subject and render it more complete, 
such additions being always signed with his name. I may 
also say that in the course of this translation it may frequently 
be convenient to intersperse, in the form of footnote or other- 
wise, certain allusions to, or illustrations of, a theory of my 
own, namely, that under no circumstances are these oak-galls 
new or independent parts or organs of the oak; that when we 
see an object, such as an oak-apple, which we have been 
_ taught to suppose a new part or organ, additional to the 
stems, leaves, buds, flowers, stipules, hairs, &c., described by 
botanists, we are not to conclude it is thus new or additional, 
but rather to regard it as a form or phase of one of these, 
caused by the presence or by the prior action of an insect, in 
some manner or by some process not yet ascertained, and 
concerning which it would be useless for an entomologist to 
speculate, seeing it is rather the province of the chemist to 
conduct such researches. This theory, if so it may be called 
(perhaps hypothesis were the better word), has not been 
generally accepted, but on the contrary, has been rigorously 
and most ably controverted by naturalists who have given 
great attention to the subject of oak-galls: among others, I 
may mention Mr. Peter Inchbald, whose arguments in the 
‘Field’ newspaper cannot fail to interest every entomologist, 
although they were subsequently disputed by Mr. Parfitt, of 
Exeter, in the same newspaper. The discussion in this instance 
was confined to the psewdo-balani, or false acorns, familiarly 
VOL. VII. B 
