looks like some kind of scale insect.

Hi. Here is a link to some picture I took of the egg casing off of the leaf. The casing is ribbed and is no bigger than the tip of a pencil. The egg casing was attached to the underside rib of the oak leaf. This is just a curiosity on my part but I would like to know what is going on out there in the insect world in the garden. I appreciate all of y'all's time and effort in getting this identified! Here is a link that might be useful: Egg Casing

Thanks for the response.....The black things are hard and cannot be squished and they are easy to just brush off the lilies....Most appear at the joint where the leaf grows out of the stem and in some places there is only one and in others, there appears to be a cluster of the little black "cannonballs"....Can anyone shed any light here??? Joyce

Kind of sound like you are describing Squash Bug eggs. Do the eggs look like any of the pictures here? Google Images: Squash Bug Eggs