THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 245 
name of his correspondent, which contained much valuable 
information; but, as it appeared, that letter was written by 
Mr. Parfitt, of Exeter, who has subsequently written me a 
more amplified paper for publication in the ‘ Zoologist.’ I 
have preferred giving this further on, seeing it will be found to 
embrace all the points mentioned in the letter to Mr. Stainton, 
and others equally interesting. At a meeting of the Entomo- 
logical Society, on the 5th November, 1855, Mr. Curtis read 
the following note from the late Mr. Haliday, who had 
collected a great number of these galls at Glanville’s Wootton, 
the seat of the late Mr. Dale, in Dorsetshire :—“ I cannot 
identify it with any Linnean or Fabrician species, but it is 
the Cynips Lignicola of Hartig, and the only one of that 
group to which the ink-gall belongs, that occurs so far north 
as England, or even Northern Germany.” (Zool. 4964.) It 
should be stated in this place that, at p. 7 of the fourth 
volume of the ‘ Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine,’ the Rev. 
T. A. Marshall—who is indefatigable in the study of the 
British Cynipidz, and in every respect competent to speak 
with authority on the subject—says that the Cynips Quercus- 
petioli of Linneus is a species of Synergus, and a parasite on 
Cynips Lignicola. I have no precise recollection of the date 
when this gall first became known to myself: the observations 
above quoted would seem to indicate its having been estab- 
lished in Britain at least half a century; but- I cannot 
refer to any evidence of its non-existence here at an earlier 
period. The absence of a record is the only reason we can 
possibly assign for supposing the absence of the gall; and 
when we consider how very recently galls have been observed 
by us at all, and how very small is the number of observers 
even now, we must not lay too much stress on the silence 
of our predecessors. This gall certainly now forces itself 
into notice, and it does not appear thus to have intruded 
itself on the notice of our entomologists during the half 
century previous to that in which we are now living: this is, 
perhaps, in favour of its absence at an earlier date. Then 
with regard to its economical bearing on our country. The 
alarmists prophesied the speedy destruction of the oak,—a 
tree that is metaphorically considered the bulwark of British 
safety. Now I have yet to learn that it does any appreciable 
injury to the adult oak. Its effect upon the sapling, so often 
