And what swarms must we suppose to be sent out of those
plentifull inundations of water which are poured down by the sluces of Rain
in such vast quantities? So that we need not much wonder at those
innumerable clouds of Locusts with which _Africa_, and other hot countries
are so pestred, since in those places are found all the convenient causes
of their production, namely, genitors, or Parents, concurrent receptacles
or matrixes, and a sufficient degree of natural heat and moisture.
I was going to annex a little draught of the Figure of those Nuts sent out
of _Devonshire_, but chancing to examine Mr. _Parkinson_'s Herbal for
something else, and particularly about Galls and Oak-apples, I found among
no less then 24. several kinds of excrescencies of the Oak, which I doubt
not, but upon examination, will be all found to be the _matrixes_ of so
many several kinds of Insects; I having observ'd many of them my self to be
so, among 24. several kinds, I say, I found one described and Figur'd
directly like that which I had by me, the _Scheme_ is there to be seen, the
description, because but short, I have here adjoin'd _Theatri Botanici
trib. 16. Chap. 2. There groweth at the roots of old Oaks in the
Spring-time, and semetimes also in the very heat of Summer, a peculiar kind
of Mushrom or Excrescence, call'd _Uva Quercina_, swelling out of the
Earth, many growing one close unto another, of the fashion of a Grape, and
therefore took the name, the _Oak-Grape_, and is of a Purplish colour on
the outside, and white within like Milk, and in the end of Summer becometh
hard and woody.
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