510 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



found upon the oak, and whicli is generally thought, by persons 

 who are unacquainted with botany or entomology, to be the buds 

 which naturally grow upon the tree. 



In these curious galls, the excrescences with which they are 

 covered take the form of leaves instead of hairs, as is the case 

 with the bedeguar and many other g?ills. These bud-like objects 

 may be found on the young twigs, and may be easily recognized 

 by their shape, which somewhat resembles that of a pine-apple, 

 and the curious manner in ^(rhich their leafy covering lies regu- 

 larly over them, like the tiles upon an ornamental roof. The 

 size of the gall is rather variable, but is, on an average, about as 

 large as an ordinary hazel-nut. 



The gall is so wonderfully bud-like that I have known the two 

 objects to be confounded — the immature acorns in their cups to 

 be carried off as galls, while the real galls were left on the tree. 

 The incipient naturalist who made th^ mistake kept the, buds for 

 some eighteen months, and was sadly disappointed to find that no 

 insects were produced from them. 



The insect whose acrid injection produces this curious effect 

 upon the tree is rather larger than the leaf-gall insect, and is of 

 more slender proportions. It has been suggested that the object 

 of the leafy or hairy covering is, that the insect, which remains 

 in the gall throughout the winter, should have a warm house by 

 which it may be protected from the chilling frost, as well as from 

 the wind and rain. 



If the reader will again refer to the illustration, he will see that 

 from the same branch on which the Gynips Kollari has formed so 

 many galls depend two slender threads supporting one or two 

 globular objects. These are popularly cstlled Cuerant Galls, 

 because they look very much like bunches of currants from which 

 the greater part of the fruit has been removed. Their color, too, 

 is another reason for giving them this name, as they are sometimes 

 scarlet, resembling red currants, and sometimes pale cream-color, 

 thus imitating the white variety. 



These galls are placed upon the catkins of the oak, which are 

 forced to give all their juices to the increase of the gall, instead 

 of employing them on their own development. Some authors 

 think that the insect which forms them is a distinct species, while 

 others think that the galls are the production of the same insect 

 which forms the leaf gall, the punctures being made in the stalk 

 of the catkin and not in the nervure of the leaf. 



