THE 



VOL. 1. 



ST. LOUIS, MO., FEBRUARY, 1869. 



JS-O. 6. 



oDbc S^mcrkait ^ntanioloqist. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 

 JR. F. STmDXiB^Sr «Sb CO., 



104 OLIVE STREET, ST. LOtTlS. 



TKUMS One dollar per aiimim in lulvimcc. 



EDITOIIS : 



llENJ. 1). WAI.MI Ituck Nliinil, 111. 



t'H-VS. V. KILE Y, 'ilW Clark Av SI. Lonis, Mo. 



(i.MhS .WD THEIR .\RCHITECTS. 



Ill tlic laiigiuigc ol' Xaturulists, "galls" iire 

 all such dc'tuiinalioiis of living and growing' 

 plants, as are produced by one or more insects 

 or other allied animals residing llierein, and 

 deriving their nourishment therefrom. For ex- 

 ample, the common " nut-galls '' of commerce, 

 to be found in every druggist's store, and which 

 are such an indispensable ingredient in all our 

 writing-inks, are caused by an exotic species of 

 tiall-fly (Cynijjn) attacking an exotic species of 

 oak, as our common oak-apples (Fig. 78) are 

 caused by an American Gall-Hy, very similar 

 to that shown in ligure 81, 'ijut smaller, attack- 

 ing an American oak. In the language of 

 surgeons and butchers, the word "gall'' has a 

 very ditt'erent meaning, being applied to the 

 fluid otherwise known as bile which is contained 

 in the gall-bladder. But with this use of the 

 term we have now nothing to do. 



Galls are of various sizes and colors, and of 

 almost every conceivable shape, .'^^ome resemble 

 a large rose, some have the appearance of a 

 pine-cone (Fig. 8i'). some imitate the sprouts 

 from a cabbage-stalk (Fig. 81), some look like a 

 tomato (Fig. 89), some like a potato, some like 

 an apple (Figs. 78 and Fig. 85 a), some like 

 smaller fruits (Figs. 79, and Fig. 80«), some like 

 the garden flower known as Cockscomb (Fig. 

 87), and some like the veritable comb of a 

 cock (Fig. 90). Some again arc smooth, some 

 wrinkled, soiue downy or hairy, a few so trans- 

 parent that the living insect can be seen inside 

 them, but most of them impervious to light. 

 Some on the other hand are so fragile that tliev 



can be readily crushed iii a child's fingers, some 

 so hard and woody that it requires a sharp knife 

 to cut into them. Finally in color they are of 

 various shades of green, yellow, crimson and 

 brown, often prettily speckled and mottled, and 

 in many cases they have as rosy a cheek as a 

 peach. 



■• As bitter as gall " is a A'ery common ex- 

 pression, but galls are by iio means generally 

 bitter. The nut-galls, indeed, of commerce arc 

 well-known to be so, and the Ojik-plum Gall 

 (Fig. 80, a), when green, seems to contain the 

 very concentrated essence of quinine. But the 

 great majority of these vegetable excrescences 

 scarcely ditt'er in flavor from the plant upon 

 which they grow. This is the case, for example, 

 with some fifty dittereut kinds of galls that grow 

 upon difl'erent species of oak. And yet tlie 

 very same species of oak which when punctured 

 by the Oak-plum Gall-fly (Fig. 81) jiroduces 

 from the cup of the acorn this intensely bitter 

 gall, when punctured by a very .similar fly be- 

 longing to the same genus {Cynipx q. sculpta. 

 Bassett) generates from the leaf a gall which 

 looks for all the world like a grape, and which 

 is as fleshy and juicy and as pleasantly acid 

 as a partially ripe grape. Strange that two such 

 closely allied insects should cause upon the 

 very same plant such very diflerent products I 



Almost every part of a plant is specially at- 

 tacked by gall-makers. Some confine them- 

 selves- to the flower, some to the woody parts 

 such as the twigs and larger branches, some to 

 the roots, and a great number to the leaves. 

 As a general rule, each gall-maker confines it- 

 self to its special part of the infested plant ; but 

 we have iioti(^ed several remarkable specimens 

 where a certain gall-maker which h.ibitually 

 attacks the twig, forming thereon a closely- 

 compacted sei-ies of galls, each of them about 

 the size of a pea (the oak-fig gall of Fitch), 

 " slopped over," so to si)eak, when it arrived at 

 the terminal bud of the twig, so as to cause 

 several galls to develop next year, not from the 

 twig itself, but from one of the leaves at the 

 tip of the twig. And yet, strange to say, these 

 abnormal galls, generated by mistake upon a 

 part of the plant where they had no business to 



