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A treatise on foreign vegetables. Containing ... such as are now commonly used in the practice of physick ... / Chiefly taken from the Materia medica of S.F. Geoffroy. By R. Thicknesse.
- Étienne François Geoffroy
- Date:
- 1749
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on foreign vegetables. Containing ... such as are now commonly used in the practice of physick ... / Chiefly taken from the Materia medica of S.F. Geoffroy. By R. Thicknesse. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Amber gut. ij. of Marjoram gut. j. Conferve of Sage-Flowers q. f. to make Fills, for ca- tarrhous Diforders. Artic. II. Of Galls. Gallce, Off. Grocer. Hafs and Hafas9 Arab. Galls are Bodies growing upon Oak-trees, of which there are many Kinds, differing in Magnitude, Co¬ lour, external Roughnefs or Smoothnefs, and Fi¬ gure. They grow indeed to Oaks or glandiferous Trees, but not in all Countries ; fmee they are not found in the colder Climates. For Ray obferves, that the Engiifh Oak never bears any •, for which he gives this Reafon, (viz.) becaufe the Infebts to which they owe their Origin are not met with there. They are not the Fruit of a Tree, as fome imagine ; but preternatural Tumours, occafioned by the biting or boring of certain Infebts. For thefe Infebts, and particularly certain Flies pierce the Buds, Leaves, and younger Twigs of the Tree : [They tear the tender Veffels, and the Juice flows from them: It arrives more abundantly at the Part, becaufe the Refiftance is diminifhed *, and the Vef¬ fels, from a greater Quantity of juice, are more and more enlarged.] Whence Tumours of various Forms; which, though preternatural with refpebfe to the Tree, are yet ordained by Nature, to be as it were Matrices to receive, preferve, and cherifh the Eggs of thefe Infebts; to hatch their Brood, and nourifh them. When Galls are opened, per- febtly ripe and freflh, fome fmall Worms, or rather Nymph#, are found in the Middle. Sometimes we find but one, fometimes many in feparate Cells; which after fome Time become Flies, of the famo Kind, or fometimes of different Kinds. Soon after they attempt to open for themfelves a Paffage, by gnawing the Subftance of the Gall, and at length F f 4 make](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30529529_0001_0457.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
