CHAP. VII.
¶ Of the Gall-nuts: and how many other things Mast-trees doe beare besides Mast.
THe nuts called Galls, doe euer breake out all at once in a night, and namely about the be∣ginning [unspec H] of Iune, when the Sun is ready to goe out of the signe Gemini. The whiter sort thereof commeth to the growth in one day▪ and if in the first spring and breaking foorth thereof it be hot weather, it drieth and withereth out of hand, and commeth not to the full big∣nesse and perfection, namely to haue a kernell as much as a bean. The blacke of this kind conti∣nueth longer fresh and green, and groweth still, to the bignesse otherwhiles of an apple. The best galls be those of Comagena: the worst is that of the oke called Robur, which are knowne by the holes they haue, that may be seen through. The common oke Quercus, ouer and besides the fruit (which is the mast) beareth many other things; for it carieth both sorts of gal, the black and the white: certaine berries also like Mulberries, but that they be dry and hard, resembling [unspec I] for the most part a buls head, containing within them a fruit much like the kernels of the oliue. Moreouer, there grow vpon it certain little bals not vnlike to nuts, hauing soft flox within good to make candle-wiek or matches for lamps; for burn they wil without any oile, like as the black Gals. It beareth also other little pils or balls good for nothing, couered ouer with haire, & yet in the spring time they yeeld a certain juice or liquor like hony. Furthermore, there breed in the hollow arm-pits (as it were) of the boughes, other small pills setled or sticking close to the wood, and not hanging by any steles, which toward the nauill or bottome thereof are whitish; otherwise they be speckled all ouer with black spots, saue that in the mids between they are of a scarlet red colour: open them, and hollow they are within, but very bitter. Somtimes also this oke engendreth certain hard callosities, like Pumish stones; yea and other round balls made of the leaues folded one within another: on the backeside also of the leafe where it is reddish, yee shal find sticking certain waterish pearls, white and transparent or cleare within, so long as they [unspec K] be soft and tender, wherein there breed little flies or gnats: howbeit in the end they ripen and wax harder, in manner of Galls.