CHAP. CV.

6’ohyla'ceas. «ue'ucl’s.

1929

species was introduced into England in 1822 j but we have never seen it, and we are not aware thatthere is a living plant of it in the neighbourhood of London.

The gall jly of Q. infeetdriabelongs to the family Cyni-pidee Wcstw. (DiplolepariaeLatreille.) Amongst theexcrescences, or galls, pro-duced by the punctures ofthe different species of thisfamily of insects, the galls, ornut galls, of commerce (inFrench, galles and not.v degallc; in German, gall-apfel;in Italian, galle and galluzze ;in Latin, galla; in Arabian,ajis; in Hindostanee, mayu-phal; and in Persian, mayer)are by far the most valuable, being much employed in the manufacture of ink,as well as occasionally for medicinal purposes. These galls, which, when fullgrown (Jig. 1821.), are of the size of a boy’s marble, ofa rounded form, and rather uneven surface, are at-tached to the slender stems of the branches of Q. in-feetdria, and are produced by the Diplolepis, or, moreproperly, Cynips Gallae tinctonae Oliv. Enc. Meth.,vi. p. 281.; Cynips scriptorum Kirby and Spence Intr.,i. p. 319. This insect (fig. 1822. d) is of a palebrown colour, and may often be found enclosed in thegalls sold in the shops of the druggists, &c.; thesegalls having been collected before the insect had madeits escape. Fig. 1822. a is a section of one of thesegalls. The natural history of this family of insectsmay be stated in a very few words, although the phy-siological nature of the changes which take place inthe action of the juices of the plants attacked by them, whereby galls of avery great diversity of form are produced, has not been ascertained. Thefemale Cynipidae are furnished with an instrument, or ovipositor, of a curvedform, and, for the most part, concealed within the abdomen, the extremity only