350 
Pliny's natural history. 
[Book XVI. 
titles at a time. He says, too, that this acorn is the last 
to fall, and that the flesh of swine, if fed upon the acorns 
of the sesculus, the robur, or the cork-tree, will be of a 
spongy nature. 
CHAP. 9. THE GALL-NUT. 
AlP^ the glandiferous trees produce the gall-nut as well : 
they only bear acorns, however, in alternate years. The gall- 
nut of the hemeris^^ is considered the choicest of all, and the 
best adapted for the preparation of leather : that of the lati- 
folia closely resembles it, but is somewhat lighter, and not by 
any means so highly approved. This last tree produces the 
black gall-nut also — for there are two varieties of it — this last 
being deemed preferable for dyeing wool. 
(7.) The gall-nut begins to grow just as the sun is leaving 
the sign of Gemini,^^ and always bursts forth in its entirety in a 
single night.^* The white variety grows, too, in a single day, but 
if the heat happens to overtake it, it shrinks immediately, and 
never arrives at its proper size, which is about that of a bean. 
The black gall-nut will remain green for a longer period, and 
sometimes attains the size of an apple^^ even. The best kind is 
that which comes from Commagene,^^ and the most inferior 
are those produced by the robur : it may easily be tested by 
means of certain holes in it which admit of the passage of the 
light.^^ 
CHAP. 10. OTHER PRODUCTIONS ON THESE TREES BESIDES THE 
ACORN. 
The robur, in addition to its fruit, has a great number of 
other productions : it bears^^ the two varieties of the gall-nut, 
This assertion is perhaps too general ; gall-nuts are produced in very 
small quantities by the holm-oak. 
^2 A variety of the Quercus racemosa, which produces the green gall- 
nut of Aleppo, considered in modern, as in ancient, times the choicest in 
quality. 
63 Theophrastus says the end of June. 
6* Its growth, in reality, is not so rapid as this. 
65 Such a thing is never seen at the present day. 
66 In Syria. We have mentioned the galls of Aleppo in Note 62. 
6^ This is the case when the inside has been eaten away by the insect 
that breeds there ; of course, in such case it is hollow, light, and worthless. 
6^ The ancients were not aware that the gall was produced from the eggs 
