The Oaks 



bodied creature, diminutive in size, but infinite in numbers. Its 

 eggs are gathered and dried, much as the cochineal insects are, 

 and a valuable scarlet dye is made of them. This industry 

 belongs to the countries of southern Europe and northern Africa, 

 where the Kermes is used for dyeing leather and wool. In France 

 cosmetics are tinted with it. 



Oak Galls. — "Oak apples" are abnormal growths on the 

 leaves or twigs of oaks due to the presence of the larvae of certain 

 insects whose eating seems to poison the tissues and distort their 

 development. An entomologist knows by the form of the gall 

 what insect produces it. In ancient times people knew little of 

 their causes — the "apples of Sodom" and "Dead Sea fruit" of 

 history, sacred and profane, were galls of oaks. The "flea seed" 

 of California oaks contain the young of a species of the genus 

 Cynips. A glance into almost any oak tree just as the buds are 

 opening will show delicate, wasp-like insects resting lightly for 

 a moment on one leaf cluster after another, depositing eggs, one in 

 a place, within the leaf substance. The beginnings of oak apples 

 may be found as large as peas on leaves scarcely an inch long. 

 John Gerard, the herbalist, writing in 1 597, naively expresses the 

 misconceptions and superstitious beliefs of his day in England. 



"The gall tree," he explains at the outset, "is a kinde of oke." 

 Then proceeding: 



"The oke apples being broken in sunder about the time of 

 their withering doe foreshew the sequell of the yeare, as the 

 expert Kentish husbandmen have observed, by the living things 

 found in them: as, if they fmde an ant, they foretell plenty of 

 graine to ensue; if a white worm like a gentill or maggot, then they 

 prognosticate murren of beasts and cattell; if a spider, then (say 

 they) we shall have a pestilence or some such like sickness to 

 follow amongst men; these things the learned also have observed, 

 and noted that before they have an hole through them they contain 

 in them either a flie, a spider, or a worme; if a flie, then warre 

 ensueth; if a creeping worme, then scarcities of victuals; if a 

 running spider, then followeth great sicknesse or mortalitie." 



Oak galls are rich in tannin, sometimes yielding as high as 

 77 per cent. They have always been used in various countries in 

 tanning the finest skins, and in making inks and dyes. The 

 Aleppo galls from northern Italy rank highest. The oldest docu- 

 ments in America show the ink still bright on the yellowing parch- 

 ment, for it was made of oak galls and is practically permanent. 



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