92 
The BOOK of NATURE; or, 
Of fome little infects that are found concealed in the tubercles, or fwellings of 
Oak-leaves, in fo artful and wonderful a manner, that the foregoing relations 
muft yield the preference to their bifiory. 
HE obfervation I am now about to exhi- 
bit, is fo uncommon in its kind, that na- 
ture perhaps cannot furnifh any thing to excel 
it. On this occafion the infinite power and 
wifdom of the Great Sovereign of the univerfe 
ftrikes our eyes with its full luftre, and indeed 
fo plainly thine forth in his creatures, that we 
mutt confider the meaneft of them as fo many 
voices engaged in publifhing his praife; and 
thereby putting us in mind to yield him that 
tribute of love and adoration, which we owe 
on fo many accounts: us, I fay, on whom he 
has beftowed the ineftimable faculties neceflary 
to inveftigate and confider him in his works. 
To proceed with due order in this relation, 
I thall firft defcribe the excrefcences of the 
Oak-leaves, in which thefe wonders are 
found *, and add a figure to render the de- 
fcription more intelligible. I fhall then, in 
the fame manner, give a fatisfactory account 
of. the infect bred in thefe excrefcences, as it 
appears in the Worm, Nymph, and F'ly-ftate. 
As to the excrefcences themfelves, the parti- 
culars in them moft worthy of our attention, 
are their fituation, conftruction, figure, colour, 
and fize. Their fituation is irregular, and it is 
pretty like that of the excrefcences on nettle- 
leaves already defcribed. Some lie on the fore 
part of the leaf, upon or clofe along the fides 
of its nerves or ribs, Tab. XLV. Fig. xu. aa. 
Others appear in the middle of a leaf, feated 
upon the main rib, 4. And fome, in fine, are 
{cattered confufedly about the edges, cc. 
Thefe tubercles confiftt of a hard, knotty, 
and compact, but brittle, fubftance, without 
the leaft toughnefs; fo that, in this refpect, 
they very much refemble a cartilage. But, 
upon the whole, I know nothing to which this. 
fabftance may be more juftly compared, than 
to the cup or covering of the hazel-nut or fil- 
bert, before it ripens, or has been pulled. 
Thefe tubercles, or fwellings, are formed be- 
tween the two coats of the oak-leaf, and ac- 
quire their hardnefs when the delicate parent 
Fly has buried its eggs there. Thefe tuber- 
cles are fometimes round, fometimes oval or 
oblong; and we often meet with two, three, 
or four of them growing into one, fo as, ina 
manner, to compofe but one continued body. 
Their colour-is generally a deep green, fome- 
times a watery fky-blue, and in fome inclining 
to white and yellow. In point of fize they 
differ greatly, according to their age, or per- 
fection of growth, and their joining two or 
more into one tubercle, ‘6. 
feeds of an orange by its pulp. 
I have not as yet had the fatisfaction of fee- 
ing the firft rudiments of thefe tubercles, which 
firft I took notice of by mere chance, in com- 
pany with my much honoured friends, the 
principal magiftrate of Niewenrode and his 
lady, in the Hague-wood, from whence I took 
many of them home to examine at my leifure. 
I fhall, therefore, now defcribe thofe wonders 
I obferved in them, in the courfe of a moft 
diligent inquiry. In one of the largett of thefe 
tubercles, which I opened by paring off its up- 
per part, Fig. x11. d, I found a pretty large 
cavity, in which there again appeared three 
other peculiar or feparate excrefcences, e. As 
to the manner of their coming there, it is more 
than I can conceive. Thefe fmaller excref- 
cences lay fingly each within a kind of hollow, 
but without any partition between them. On 
taking out thefe three feparate excrefcences, f, 
I found that in figure they greatly refembled a 
kidney-bean, which has one fide more convex 
than the other. On infpecting them with a 
microfeope, they looked as if they had been 
connected by the middle to a kind of pod, by 
means of a petiolus, or little ftalk. , 
Thefe fingularities fterved only to make my 
curiofity more eager, to examine attentively the 
other tubercles that I had taken home with 
me; and I found them all filled with the mi- 
racles of the Great Creator. On feparating in 
the middle a tubercle, that wanted a great deal 
of being arrived at the fize and perfection of 
that already defcribed, 1 found no hollow or 
void {pace within it; but only two fuch pea- 
fhaped fubftances as I have before taken notice 
of, and two little Worms, which I had cut in 
two, along with thofe fubftances. All this is 
plainly fhewn in the figure I give of them, 
Tab: XLV. Pig. xtv. little Jarger than. na-- 
ture; in which may be feen the two diffected 
or cut fubftances, fituated in the middle, and. 
about them the fubftance of the tubercle, by 
which they are clofely furrounded, like the 
IT could like-. 
wife obferve, that the external coat or fhell of 
the tubercle was much more compact, and of 
a greener colour, than the infide; which dif- 
ference I have endeavoured to reprefent in the 
figure, as if there had been a feparation 
between the differing fubftances, though, in 
reality, there is no feparation in this {tate of 
the production. 
On opening a third tubercle, that was fome- 
what more grown, I could difcern that its in- 
ternal fubftance was drying up by degrees, and 
* The Worms found in tubercles of leaves, and other parts of plants, are all owing to the eggs of winged infetts. Their parents 
are of three kinds: 1. Butterflies. 2. Beetles. 3. Flies. We may know, at fight, to which of thele kinds any Worm belongs 
by its form. IF it have no feet or legs, it is the Maggot of a Fly. If i legs, and no 
and will be changed to one. If it have more legs than this number, it is a Caterpillar in miniature, 
or Moth. 
4 
If it have fix legs, and no more, it is produced from a Beetle, 
and will change to a Butterfly 
feparatin g 
