Our hnports of eutch in 1880 were 5155 tons, value 173,010/., from the British E. Indies; 539 tons, 15,5721., from other countries ; total, 5694 tons, 188,612/. Our exports in the same year were :-892 tons, 28,527/., to Germany ; 676 tons, 24,562/., to the United States ; 478 tons, 15,505i., to France; 303 tons, 10,5371., to Holland; 177 tons, 5859/., to Russia; 141 tons, 4835/., to Belgium ; 245 tons, 8719/., to other countries ; total, 2912 tons, 98,544/. The approximate London market value of Pegu outch is 21-428. a cwt.
An astringent extract prepared from the Areca Catechu (see Nuts—Areca, p. 1351) is said to contribute to commercial cutch ; if so, it is a totally distinct product from those juat described.
Diwi-divi, or Libi-dibi.—These names are applied to the seed-pods of Ccesalpinia coriaria, a tree of 20-30 ft., indigenous to several of the W. Indies, Mexico, Venezuela, and N. Brazil, and naturalized in Madras and Bombay Presidencies, and in the N.-W. Provinces. The pod may be known by its drying to the shape of a letter S ; it contains 30-50 per cent. of a peculiar tannin, somewhat similar to that of valonia. It is cheap, and may be uaed in admixture with barks ; but it is dangerously liable to undergo fermentation, suddenly staining the leather a dark red colour, and is therefore not in extensive use. The imports of it are mainly from Maracaibo, Paraiba, and St. Domingo. Maracaibo, iu 1880, exporled 197,67-1 lb. of divi-divi, value 32221 dol. (of 4s. 2,/.), to New York. Our imports of divi-divi into Liverpool, according to figures kindly furnished by Haw and Co., were 2200 tons in 1877, 1740 in 1878, 2132 in 1879, and 780 in 1880. The approximate market value is 12-17/. a-ton.
Galls.—Tho generic term " gall " is applied to those excrescences on plants which are produced by the punctures of insects, for the purpose of depositing their eggs. The excrescences aro usually considered to be a diseased condition of vegetable tissue, resulting from the injection of some secretion of the insects. But this has been combated by A. S. Wilson, of Aberdeen, who considers that all insect galls aro in reality leaf-buds, or fruit-buds, and not mere amorphous excrescences. The vascular lines which would form leaves can easily be followed up in the structure of the oak leaf galls. And in oases where the egg has been deposited in the tiesue of a young branch, the cap of the gall is sometimes surmounted by a leaf 2-3 in. long. But in the large blue Turkish galls, many lacunas ooeur where the flcshifled leaves have not filled up the spaces between them. If a dissection be made of one of the weevil-galls on the bulb of the turnip, the second or third slice will show the outer foliations, exactly similar to those of the root-buds. When the centre has been reaohed, where the maggot will be found, there will also be a vasoular pencil running up from a medullary ray in the bulb, and bearing on its top a bud of the same description as that produced by a ray running out from a root. The insertion of the ovipositor brings medullary
ray into aotion, producing a tuberoulated bud, and it is only the bud which the larva feeds upon. The growth of a bud is an intelligible cause of the growth of a gall, but nothing eau be inferred from the injection of a fluid. The analogy to leaves is further shown by the fact that varioua microsoopie fungi are matured in the interior of imperforate galls.
The principal commercial kinds of gall are oak-galls and Chinese galls.
Oak-galls, Nut-galls, Aleppo or Turkey galls (FR., Noix de Galle, Galle d'Alep; GER., Leoantische or Aleppische Gallen, Galldpfel).—These are formed by the punctures of Cynips [Diplolepis] Gallo tinctorice on Qv,ercus lusitanica var. infectoria [Q. infectoria], a shrubby tree of Greece, Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Syria, and probably other varieties and even species of oak. The female insect is furnished with a delicate ovipositor, by means of which she pierces the tender shoots of the tree, and lays her eggs therein. Iu the centre of the full-grown gall, the larva is Latched and under goes its transformations, finally (in 5-6 months) becoming a winged insect, and boring for itself a cylindrical exit-hole. The best commercial galls are those which have been gathered while the insect is still in the larval state. Such have a dark olive-green colour, and are comparatively heavy ; but after the fly has escaped, they become yellowish-brown in hue, and lighter. Hence they are distinguished in the London market as " blue" or " green," and " white." In Smyrna, they are classified as " white," " green," and " black," the first two sorts generally fetching nearly the saxne price, while the black obtain considerahly more, the approximate quotations being :— w hite and green, per Turkish oke (of 2.83 lb.), 8i-9 piastres (of 2d.); black, 13i--14 piastres. The " nuts come mostly from Melemen, Cassaba, and Mag-nesia, also from the Syrian coasts, being plentiful on the east of the river Jordan, and are chiefly forwarded to France, England, and &tonics. Th9 triennial yield is said to be invariably the best. They begin to reach Smyrna from the interior towards the end of July. The crop of 1880 was estimated at over 50,000 okes. The province of Aleppo, which used to afford 10,000-12,000 quintals (of 2 cwt.) annually, only exported 3000 in 1871. The galls collected in the Kurdistan mountains are marketed at Diarbekir, and sent thence to Trebizonde for shipment. Bussora, Bagdad, and Bushire also export considerable quantities.