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100
The ~'ynips quercus gernmce, is another species which deposits its future progeny in the oak buds, ad produces One of the finest galls, leafed like a rose-bud beginning to blow. Whilst the gall is small, these leaves are compressed, and are set one upon another, like the tiles of a roof. Open one of these galls, and you will find a kind of ligneous kernel, enclosing a cavity, that serves as a cradle for the little larva, which undergoes its metamorphosis in that enclosure. Oak trees afford nourishment to a multitude of insects. Barbut says, that not less than fifty species, of this tribe alone,. are supported on it.
C The Cynips roses, produces on the sweet
brier, dog-rose, &c. a gall of a singular app
pearance, resembling a beautiful heap of deli
cate green moss, tinged with red. You may
have frequently observed them in autumn: a
small, white maggot, is discovered in the centre
of this solid, fleshy substance; and sometimes
there are several inhabitants in the same mass.
The leaves of willows are marked by large,
irregular, red swellings, during the summer,
which are caused by a small species of the
'nips, of a yellow colour, with a black thorax.
The process of foming these galls is very cu
rious: the insect penetrates the bark, leaf, or
spot which begins to bud, and there sheds a
drop
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