104 BRITISH OAK GALLS. 
about twenty years later. In 1848 Mr. Parfitt 
noticed many of the galls in the same county, as also 
did Mr. Stainton a few years later. Its authentic 
history, however, as British, commenced on November 
6th, 1854, when Mr. Rich was present as a visitor at 
the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, 
and exhibited some sprays of oak thickly covered with 
large galls. Mr. Rich reported at the meeting, that 
the gall was very abundant in Somersetshire, and 
Gloucestershire. (‘Proc. Ento. Soc.,’ 2nd series, vol. 
ili, p. 38.) 
At first the gall was observed only in the vicinity of 
Exeter, where, in two large nursery gardens, young 
oak trees were greatly distorted. For many years it 
was known as the Devonshire gall. From those 
south-western counties it gradually spread along the 
north-western part of England and over Wales. In 
the year 1858 Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, 
obtained from Devonshire a very large number of the 
galls, and distributed them in different localities around 
London, for the purpose of observations. By so doing 
the spreading of the species throughout the remainder 
of England was accelerated. Now-the gall may be 
found in almost every hedgerow, where there is oak, 
throughout the whole of Britain, in some districts in 
great abundance. 
Soon after the galls had become ubiquitous im the 
three counties previously mentioned, many persons 
were apprehensive that the growth of oak trees, and 
the timber, would be imperilled by the destruction of 
the acorns, and the distortion of the twigs, if the 
spreading of the gall remained unchecked. Several 
writers advocated that the galls should be utilised in 
the manufacture of ink, and, since they seldom formed 
on any part of the tree at a greater height than a few 
feet, children should be employed to gather them, and 
by that means extermination would be soon accom- 
plished. Analysis, however, showed that not more 
than 17 percent. of tannin could be obtained from the 
