26
TRAVELS
THROUGH
SPAIN.
duce the fame number o f animalcules.
T h e ancients
knew them to be infects, for Pliny fays, " C o c c u m ilicis
celerrime in vermiculum fe mutans."
L i b . 24. feet. 4.
W h e n obferved with the microfcope in July or Auguft,
w e find that what appeared as duft, are fo many e g g s , or
open capfules, as white as fnow, out o f each o f which,
iffues a gold coloured animalcule, of the fhape o f a cockr o c h e , with two horns, fix feet, and a forked tailM r . D e R e a u m u r has placed the kermes in the clafs
o f gall infects, on account o f the analogy in their mode
of propagation, and immoveable form, continuing even
after death, like the other fpecies o f this clafs, found
u p o n different trees, appearing only like galls, or excrefcences, to the molt accurate naturalifls:
Therefore
they could not b e more properly named, than gall in­
fects.
T h e r e are of them o f different fhapes and fizes,
b u t that o f the cofcoxa or carrafca (the kermes) is o f a
fpherical figure, about the fize o f a j u n i p e r berry.
It
is found raoft plentifully on the oldeft and loweft trees,
and w h e n the kermes are gathered near the fea, they are
larger and give a brighter colour than thofe in any other
places.
T h e r e are feveral fpecies o f galls difcovered on dif­
ferent
trees, and plants of Spain, though
they only
make ufe of thofe gathered on oaks, either for dying, or
any other purpofes; fuch are thofe, from the Levant
called