DEAD SEA APPLE. 515 



house, or rather a city of treasure-houses, very few of which have 

 been unlocked because no one has found the keys. No one, in- 

 deed, is likely to do so as long as he chooses to despise " little 

 things," and if the only acknowledged benefit conferred on man- 

 kind by the insect tribes had been the ink gall, it is a boon so 

 great that every insect ought to deserve our respect as the possible 

 donor of some similar aid to civilization at present unknown. 



In the right-hand upper corner of the illustration is seen a gall 

 of some size, and nearly spherical. This is the celebrated Dead 

 Sea Apple, of which such strange stories have been told. 



This so-called fruit was said to be lovely and beautiful to the 

 eye, but, instead of containing sweet juice, to be filled with bit- 

 ter ashes, which filled the mouth as soon as it was bitten. Of 

 course, the ashes were supposed to be drawn by the tree from the 

 sunken remnants of the three evil cities beneath the bituminous 

 waves of the Dead Sea, and to present tangible evidence of their 

 existence. 



This story, which was implicitly believed for many centuries, 

 was at length as decidedly discredited, and the whole narrative 

 of the ash-filled fruit denounced as a mere fable. However, re- 

 cent researches have proved, as is often the case, that the main 

 facts of the story are true, though the inference to be derived 

 from them has been entirely mistaken. In the first place, these 

 seeming fruits are not produced by any of those trees which are 

 known to gardeners as fruit-bearers, but are found only upon a 

 species of oak, which is, in fact, the same tree that furnishes the 

 ink galls of commerce. At the proper season of the year, the 

 oaks, which are of low stature, and more like scrubby bushes 

 than the stately trees which are suggested by the name of oak, 

 are seen to be covered with round, fruit-looking objects, beauti- 

 fully colored, and closely resembling ripe apples. If, however, 

 they are cut open, they will be found to be the habitation of a 

 species of gall-fly, which has been named by Mr. Westwood Cy- 

 nips insana. 



It is evident that if any one were to bite a gall, especially one 

 that was produced from the oak, the exceedingly astringent prop- 

 erties of the excrescence would produce a very rough and ash- 

 like sensation to the palate, which would be increased by the dry- 

 ness of its substance. Except in size, they much resemble the 

 gall of commerce, and many persons have thought that they are 



