GALLS: 127 
been concentrated in them. There are galls upon the 
flowers, galls upon the trunk, and even galls upon the 
root. 
Some oak-galls may be called compound galls. M. Bosc 
mentions a small gall which is found upon the American 
oak. It is not larger than a pea, and if shaken is found 
to contain some hard substance loosely lodged in its 
interior. When the gall is cut open, a very curious 
state of things is seen. The walls are very thin, so that, 
in spite of the small dimensions, the cell is larger than 
that of many cynipide. Within the cell, no insect is 
discovered, but in its place a little spherical object, about 
as large as a No. 5 shot, which is very hard, and rolls 
about freely in the interior. If this be opened, the 
larva is found within it, reminding the adept in fairy 
lore of the white cat whose gifts were enclosed in a 
succession of nuts, each within the other. How these 
singular little cellules are made is not known, though 
their discoverer expended great trouble and patience 
upon them. 
The same naturalist mentions another species of gall, 
also found upon the oak in Carolina. It is spherical, 
covered with prickles like a thistle, and beset with a 
thick downy covering of rather long hair. Many other 
galls possess these characteristics, but the most curious 
point connected with this species is, that the hairs are as 
mobile as those of the sensitive plant, and as soon as 
they are touched, sink down, and never afterwards regain 
their former position. 
There is a kind of fungus which is found in wine- 
vaults, and which exhibits a similar phenomenon. When 
newly grown, it hangs in great masses, like tufts of pure 
cotton-wool. But to carry a specimen away is im- 
possible, for, as soon as it is touched, it begins to con- 
