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THE AMERICAN- NATURALIST 



[Vol. LII 



Fockeu in 1897 mentions having found these galls in 

 the East but states that to-day the old common name, 

 Baisonge, is unknown and that the people of the country 

 when questioned concerning them said that they had never 

 noticed their existence and expressed doubt of their ever 

 having been used for food, or in making confections. 



This name "Baisonge" was not used by either Belon or 

 Olivier for the gall of the sage, but has been used by 

 Cuvier to designate a terebinthe gall from Syria. 



Atjlax glechom^e Linnaeus 

 Another Cynipid gall which has been used as food is 

 the gall of the ground ivy made by Aulax glechomce on 

 Glechoma hederacea L. It occurs in Lorraine and 

 Sweden. 



This gall was used in France as food and is said to have 

 an agreeable taste and the sweet odor of the host-plant. 



Chinese Oak Gall 



An unidentified oak gall, said to closely resemble the 

 European gall, is one which was recorded in Pen T'Sau 

 as Woo-shih-tsze. 



The following translation of the note concerning it has 

 been published by Pereira (Pharm. Journ., Vol. 3, 1844, 

 pp. 384-7) : 



Woo-shih-tsze also comes from the West, and from India. The tree 

 is said to be sixty or seventy cubits high and eight or nine cubits in 

 circumference, and grows in sandy and stony places. It is compared 

 ... to the camphire tree. It flowers in the third moon; the flower is 

 white, and rather red in the center. The bud formed is round like a 



forms a hole in it. They say that the tree one year produces the Woo- 

 shih-tsze, and another year produces something which resembles a 



Another name is Whi-ztsip-tsze. It has various medicinal properties. 

 It is used with some other ingredients for dyeing beards black. 



The taste of the Woo-pei-tsze is, according to them, a sour, saltish 



