GALL INSECT. 
387 
to be useful, as the cavity is frequently occupied by 
a small spider, who watches her opportunity to 
slide in and take possession of the habitation, 
where she spins her web and ensnares the unwary 
insects that venture into her cell. The case, how- 
ever, is different with the gall-nut that grows in 
the autumn. The cold weather frequently comes 
on before the worm is changed into a fly, or can 
disengage itself from its confinement. The nut 
falls with the leaves without injuring the enclosed 
insect, which passes the winter on the ground, se- 
curely lodged in the body of the nut, and buried 
under a heap of leaves that secure it from all in- 
jury. But this warm and commodious apartment, 
which proves so snug a habitation in the winter, be- 
comes a prison in the spring, and the little animal, 
excited to action by the first sensation of warmth, 
is all impatience to be gone : it accordingly begins 
its operations, and by degrees opens for itself a pas- 
sage, through which it forces its way, and leaves its 
former lodging never to return again. 
The best galls are imported from the Turkish 
dominions, and are known by the name of galls of 
Aleppo : they are generally of a blueish colour, un- 
equal and warty on the surface, and of a close com- 
pact texture. Another sort is imported from some 
of the southern parts of Europe, of a whitish colour, 
smooth, round, and easily broken: they are of a 
much larger size, but not by any means so useful as 
the Aleppo galls, two parts of these being equivalent 
at least to three of the others. 
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