506 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



growth of oaks is very dense. At the present day they have in- 

 creased so rapidly 'that they outnumber almost every species, if 

 we except the tiny spangle galls, and I have bred great quanti- 

 ties of the insect. The creature which made them is named 

 Cynips Kollari, in honor of the celebrated entomologist, and is 

 plentiful on the Continent. I believe that it has long been known 

 in Devonshire, though in Kent it has only recently made its ap- 

 pearance. 



The galls produced by this insect are wonderfully spherical, of 

 a brown color, smooth on the exterior, and about as large as 

 white-heart cherries. Each contains a single insect, which under- 

 goes all its changes within the gall, and eats its way out when it 

 has attained the perfect form. Occasionally two galls become 

 fused together, and in my collection there is a very curious ex- 

 ample of these twin galls. They form a figure like that of a rude 

 hour-glass, and each portion has contained an insect. The inhab- 

 itant of one portion has eaten its way out and escaped, but the 

 other has met with a singular fate. By some untoward error, it 

 has taken a wrong direction, and instead of issuing into the world 

 in the ordinary way, has hit upon the neck which connects the 

 two galls, so that, instead of merely piercing half the diameter of 

 the gall, it would have been forced to gnaw a passage equal to 

 three half diameters. 



Natural powers are always adjusted to the work which their 

 possessors have to perform. The insect was gifted with the ca- 

 pability of eating her way through the walls of her own habita- 

 tion, but not with the power of making a passage through another 

 gall afterward. As a natural consequence, she has died from ex- 

 haustion before she could emerge into the air'; and when I cut 

 the double gall, in order to see how the inmates had fared, I found 

 the dead insect lying near the middle of the second gall, so that 

 she was even farther from the outer air than when she started on 

 her course. 



The Cynips Kollari is larger than the generality of the family, 

 equaling a small house-fly in dimensions. Its color is pale brown. 

 A figure of the insect may be seen in the illustration. 



Nearly in the centre of the illustration is seen a figure of the 

 well-known gall that is so common on the rose, whether wild or 

 cultivated, and which is popularly known by the name of Bede- 

 guar. This gall is caused by a very tiny and very brilliantly- 



