422 Useful Insects and their Products. 
questioned his profundity in law, politics, and all the et ceteras of 
village controversy, and forgot to make him their oracle. 
And the family, you say, give us their destiny. Well then, 
spring came round and brought with it that day which will for- 
ever come, when all dues are demanded. But no cash was ready, 
and the searching eyes of creditors could find no " goods or chat- 
tels" whereon to levy to satisfy their claims. The mortgage 
was closed and village life wound up, for in the stillness of night, 
though at different periods, the whole family toojf up a line of 
march for " the west," where they at length all safely arrived, 
but whether to profit by the bitterness of past experience or to 
enter upon new scenes of Moonshine castle building, your depo- 
nent knoweth not. 
USEFUL INSECTS AND THEIR PRODUCTS. 
BY JAMES H. FENNELL. 
Hymenoptera. — Although the galls of commerce ar» essentially 
of a vegetable nature, yet ihey owe their origin to what are called 
gall-flies, and therefore we may fairly include these substances 
among the products of insects. Galls arise from punctures which 
the female gall-fly [Cynips, of which there are numerous species) 
makes in various parts of plants, shrubs, and trees, that she may 
deposit her eggs therein; inserting, generally, but one egg in each 
puncture. At such parts the plant assumes unusual forms — the 
egg, or the hatched grub of the fly becoming surrounded by a 
vegetable growth, of a firm texture, genei ally globular, and mostly 
possessing, at first, a bright, healthy color, like that of young bark 
or fresh fruit. This production continues to grow on all sides 
during the sojourn of the gri;b within it. The operating cause 
of the growth of the gall, and of the regularity of its form, does 
not appear to be clearly understood by either entomologists or 
botanists; but there is positive proof ihat none of these galls are 
produced without the presence of the insects. What is objection- 
ably called the oak-apple is a gall of this kind; and if cleft in two 
at the proper time, the grub of the gall-fly will be discovered 
reposing in the central chamber of it. Those galls which different 
species of gall-fly produce on three species of sage [Salvia offici- 
nalis, triloba, and pomifera,) are very juicy, and crowned with 
rudimentary leaves, resembling the calyx of a young apple. Jn 
the Levant, these.sage galls are highly prized lor their aromatic 
and acid flavor, especially when prepared with sugar. They 
