IT. 1. THE OAK. 117 
with animals of the deer kind.* In our own native forests, 
the bear, the racoon, the squirrel, the wild pigeon, and the 
wild turkey, delight in various kinds of acorn, and the hardly 
less wild swine fatten upon them. 
In England, whose oak forests are now one of the sources of 
national wealth and naval supremacy, the tree was once prized 
only for the acorns, which were the chief support of those large 
herds of swine, whose flesh formed so considerable a part of the 
food of the Saxons. ‘‘ Woods of old,” says Burnett,+ “were 
valued according to the number of hogs they could fatten, and 
so rigidly were the forest lands surveyed, that in ancient records, 
such as the Doomes-day Book, woods are mentioned of a ‘‘sin- 
gle hog.” ‘The right of feeding hogs in woods, called Pannage, 
formed, some centuries ago, one of the most valuable kinds of 
property. With this right monasteries were endowed, and it 
often constituted the dowry of the daughters of the Saxon kings.” 
The oak is peculiarly subject to attacks of insects, which 
cause a great many varieties of galls; some kind being found 
on almost every part of the tree. ‘These were once supposed to 
be the fruit of the tree. The most important is that known in 
commerce as the gallnut, and imported in large quantities into 
this and other countries from Aleppo, and other ports in the 
Levant. This is produced by the puncture of an insect called 
by Olivier, in his travels, Diplolepis galle tinetorie, which 
deposits an egg in each puncture, which immediately causes a 
swelling about the size of a walnut. The oak, on which this 
takes place, is a small, shrubby species, called the Q. infectoria, 
common in all parts of Asia Minor and Syria, and valuable 
only for the gallnuts. Oak galls are among the most powerful 
vegetable astringents known, and form the basis of many styptics 
and astringent medicines. An infusion of them is said to be 
the best antidote for an over-dose of ipecacuanha.{ 
An insect found on a species of oak growing in the Levant, 
* Histoire des Chénes, p. 4. { Outlines, 532. 
+ Bumett, Outlines, 535. Galls contain a peculiar astringent principle, called 
gallic acid, which strikes a deep purple color, gradually becoming black with the 
soluble salts of iron. This property renders them a valuable dye-stuff. Hence 
their request with dyers. They also form the basis of common black ink. 
