BRITISH GALLS 
CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 
HE remarkable hypertrophies of plant tissues with 
which this volume is concerned have been termed 
“ galls ” from early times. The Greek naturalist and philo¬ 
sopher Theophrastus (372-286 b.c.) alluded to the superior 
quality of the gall-nuts of Syria. Then, as now, the Aleppo 
gall* was a valuable article of trade. Two well-known 
writers of the first century a.d. also alluded to them—viz., the 
Greek surgeon Dioscorides and the Roman naturalist Pliny 
the Elder. The true cause of the origin of these growths was 
quite unknown until comparatively recent times. Dr. Peter 
Matthiolus, a physician of great repute in the sixteenth 
century, ascribed their origin to spontaneous generation, and 
asserted that important events could be foretold by carefully 
examining the contents of galls. These views were upheld 
by the botanists (herbalists) of that time. Gerard wrote: 
“The Oke-apples being broken asunder do foreshew the 
sequell of the yeare, as the expert Kentish husbandmen 
have observed by the living things found in them: as if 
they found an ant, they foretell plenty of graine to ensue ; 
if a white worm or magot, murren of beasts and cattell; 
if a spider, then, say they, we shall have a pestilence or 
some such-like sickness amongst men.” The authors of a 
* Caused by Cynips tinctoria Oliv. chiefly on Quercus infectoria Oliv. 
Nearly 800 tons of these Galls were imported in 1861. 
