PSEUDO-GALLS. 397 



habitations which they have abandoned. We have 

 sometimes observed sprigs of the lime-tree, of a 

 thumb's thickness, portions of Avhich resembled spiral 

 screws, but we could not certainly have assigned the 

 true cause for this twisting, had we not been ac- 

 quainted with the manner in which aphides contort 

 the young shoots of this tree.* The shoots of the 

 gooseberry and the willow are sometimes contorted 

 in the same way, but not so strikingly as the shoots 

 of the lime. 



Pseudo-Galls. 



It may not be out of place to mention here certain 

 anomalous excrescences upon trees and other plants, 

 which, though they much resemble galls, are not so 

 distinctly traceable to the operations of any insect. In 

 our researches after galls, we have not unfrequently 

 met with excrescences which so very much resemble 

 them, that before dissection we should not hesitate to 



Pseudo-gall of th: Bramhle, drawn from a specimen- 



* Reaumur, vol. iii. 

 34 



