Another class of facts, not relating to cultivated plants, deserves attention.
I allude to the production of galls. Every one knows the curious, bright-red,
hairy productions on the wild rose-tree, and the various different galls
produced by the oak. Some of the latter resemble fruit, with one face as rosy
as the rosiest apple. These bright colours can be of no service either to the
gall-forming insect or to the tree, and probably are the direct result of the
action of the light, in the same manner as the apples of Nova Scotia or Canada
are brighter coloured than English apples. According to Osten Sacken's latest
revision, no less than fifty-eight kinds of galls are produced on the several
species of oak, by Cynips with its sub-genera; and Mr. B.D. Walsh (23/48. See
Mr. B.D. Walsh's excellent papers in 'Proc. Entomolog. Soc. Philadelphia'
December 1866 page 284. With respect to the willow see ibid 1864 page 546.)
states that he can add many others to the list. One American species of
willow, the Salix humilis, bears ten distinct kinds of galls. The leaves which
spring from the galls of various English willows differ completely in shape
from the natural leaves. The young shoots of junipers and firs, when punctured
by certain insects, yield monstrous growths resembling flowers and fir-cones;
and the flowers of some plants become from the same cause wholly changed in
appearance. Galls are produced in every quarter of the world; of several sent
to me by Mr. Thwaites from Ceylon, some were as symmetrical as a composite
flower when in bud, others smooth and spherical like a berry; some protected
by long spines, others clothed with yellow wool formed of long cellular hairs,
others with regularly tufted hairs. In some galls the internal structure is
simple, but in others it is highly complex; thus M. Lacaze-Duthiers (23/49.
See his admirable 'Histoire des Galles' in 'Annal. des Sc. Nat. Bot.' 3rd
series tome 19 1853 page 273.) has figured in the common ink-gall no less than
seven concentric layers, composed of distinct tissue, namely, the epidermic,
sub-epidermic, spongy, intermediate, and the hard protective layer formed of
curiously thickened woody cells, and, lastly, the central mass, abounding with
starch-granules on which the larvae feed.
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